What Were They Doing When?
I’ve said it before but it bears repeating. Starting a new novel is a front-loaded activity. Every novelist does it differently, but only a handful sit down at the keyboard and type: “It was a dark and stormy night…” without a clue where the story’s going after that.
After you have written your logline, synopsis and treatment, you’ve completed your list of necessary scenes and you’ve even clipped pictures of your characters, you’re ready to … START WRITING??? Nope. You’re ready to set out your character timelines.
Simply put, you make a list of your major characters and map out the important events in their lives. When were they born. When did they graduate from high school? When did they get married? Have children?
Why go to so much trouble? Because it will save you a ton of trouble later on and keep you from making embarrassing mistakes.
A picture’s worth a thousand words, so here’s a cut-and-paste of the character timelines from Black Sunshine.
1. Will Gribbins—38
1963 Born
1970 Mother, Winona Calhoun, runs off with truck driver—5
1978 Father diagnosed with black lung—7
1978 to 1981 raised by Granny and Bowman 7 to 18
1981 Survives Harlan #7 explosion—18
1981 Joins Navy—18
1982-1990 Aircraft carrier—19 to 27
1987—father dies of black lung—24
1990—leaves Navy, work on oil rig coast Texas—27
1991—fired from oil rig job for drinking—28
1991-1998—painter, carpenter, farm worker—loses jobs—28-35
1998—first goes AA, still got a watch—35
1998-2000 homeless, booze and drugs, lives under bridge—35-37
2000—starts going to AA regularly—37
2000—back for 20-year Memorial Service Harlan #7 explosion—38
2. Granny (Ruby Lucille Johnson) Sparrow—76
1925 Born
1940 Marries Bowman Sparrow—15
1942 Daughter Stella born—17
1944 Daughter Ruth Ann born—19
1948 Daughter Charity born—23
1956 Son Ricky Dan born—31
1959 Stella (17) marries Bobby Mattingly—34
1960 Stella’s daughter Laurie Ann born—35
1962 Daughter Ruth Ann (18) marries Jody Simpson—37
1963 Ruth Ann’s daughter Della born, Stella’s daughter Dreama born (Granny had 3 granddaughters before age 40)
1964 Daughter Charity marries Clive Shepherd.
1965 Charity’s twin daughters Ruby and Marilou born.
1966 to 1980 Three daughters have five more children, two boys, three girls for a grand total of 9 girls and 3 boys
1981 Husband Bowman, son Ricky Dan, brother Ed, son-in-law Jody Simpson killed in Harlan #7 explosion—56
1981 Twin grandchildren Jamey, JoJo born—56
2001—Memorial service—75
3. Ricky Dan Sparrow—died at 18
1963 Born
1981 Girlfriend Joanna Darlene Dudley gets pregnant
1981 killed in Harlan #7 explosion—18
1981 Girlfriend Joanna killed car accident
1981 Twin children Jamey, JoJo
4. Jamey Sparrow—19 (mentally about 9 years old)
1982 Nov. 27 Born
1987 Gets canary ValVleen—5
5. JoJo Sparrow—19
1982 Nov. 27 Born
1997 quits school to marry Darrell Holland—16
1997 Darrell killed in mining accident—17
2000 Engaged to Avery Duncan—18
2000 Jesse busted for selling Oxycontin, sentenced to 15 years—18
2001 decides commit suicide before turns 20—19
6. LLoyd Crowder—38
1963 Born
1970 father beats him—ages 7-15
1972 to 1981 gravitates to Granny and Bowman ages 9 to 18
1981 Survives Harlan #7 explosion—18
1982-Marries Betty Ann Phelps—19
1983—Son Jesse born—20
1984—Daughter Amy born—21
1982-1991—drunk, lousy husband, father 22-28
1991 Sees movie The Mission (1986 movie)
1991—starts going Pentecostal church (Jesse 6, Amy 5)
2000—17-year-old son busted for drugs—37
2001 17-year-old daughter moves in w/boyfriend
2001 Memorial Service Harlan #7 explosion—38
It takes some time to work all this out, but once it’s done, you’re free. You don’t have to constantly calculate how old someone was when a given event happened in their lives, whether two characters could have met in college or if phonographs had been invented when a character was a teenager. Say I glibly write about two of my characters that “…they were high school sweethearts before he was shot down over Germany…” I can look at the timelines and realize that’s not going to work because she graduated from high school in 1958 and he was 8 years old when the Allies bombed Germany.
And timelines aren’t engraved in granite. If something doesn’t work, just change it. But timelines help you remember that if you change a character’s age or when they got married, you have to change everything else associated with those dates—graduation, marriage, their children’s ages, etc.
Hang in there, the pre-writing activities are ALMOST over. Pretty soon, you’ll be able to sit down and begin your “once upon a time…”
