How to Write a Book:
Keeping Track of All Your Facts

As a novelist, you need to know how to write a book. How to keep track of all the details that go into your book. How to break it into appropriate chapters. How to create a timeline of events to follow (not always in chronological order).

So, here are some tips to keep your details in place and your mind sane as you learn how to write a book.


Data Overload

When you write a novel, you create characters. You develop a plot, draw a setting. To each of those parts are myriad details. How tall is your heroine? What color eyes does your antagonist have? Did they meet at that bar on Ninth Avenue, or was it at the park on Bridge Street?

I don't know about you, but I'd never figure out how to write a book without driving myself nuts if I didn't have ways to keep track of all those details.

For me, a database helps me keep track. Especially because I write a series, and many of the details need to be kept straight for multiple books.

I have one for characters where each new character gets added as I create him or her. I keep basic information such as hair and eye color in there, as well as general physical characteristics, personality notes, birth date, names of spouse and kids, if necessary, and, as happens with some of them, when they died.

A more detailed picture of each character is created on my fiction writing character outline (you can click the link to download it free), but only general details go into the database. I can always refer to the outlines to find more information.

I also have a database for settings in my books. Since many of them take place in the same world, I can keep lists of towns, cities and other locations, plus details about which important characters live where and any geographical details specific to the place.

For setting, that's only beginning of how to write a book without losing my mind. I draw maps, too.

I have an overall map of my fantasy world, several enlarged areas on
more detailed maps (a village layout, for instance), and myriad floor
plans of buildings and the arrangement of certain areas that get referred
to frequently.

I don't know about you, but I need these visual cues to help me make sure my description's the same every time I refer to that inn on Carter Lane. Otherwise, the door faces north one book and south the next. Not good. Your readers will catch you (and be delighted to tell you when you made
a mistake!).

And then there's the plot.


There Was A Time

If you want to know how to write a book without confusing yourself or your readers, you have to keep your plot in order. I have several methods for keeping track of plot points. The first, because of my series, is a detailed timeline, centering around my most important characters.

Through the years, this has become quite long, but it's done in abbreviation, so LOTS of information fits in not too large a space. It includes birth and death dates, major events in each main character's life and throughout the series.

This is just my base. If I tried to put every plot point from every book in the series on that timeline, it would be 1000 pages long!

So, the next step I take is to create a more detailed timeline for each book. This includes every event that happens in that particular novel.

Then, while the book is being edited, I take that list and break it down into chapters, and actually paste the list of plot points that fall in say Chapter Three at the top of my chapter three file. So at a glance, I can see what happens in that chapter and move scenes around more easily. (My version of index cards!)

Otherwise, I waste an hour trying to figure out when she made that phone call to her best friend telling the secret she wasn't supposed to tell, and getting the hero in hot water with the bad guy.

Once I've got my novel in proper order and am getting ready to go to publish it, those heading notes disappear.


Chapter and Verse

Okay, most novels don't have much verse - if any - in them. But I can't help myself horsing around with silly subheads and quotes now and then.

Maybe your first question about how to write a book, once you have your rough draft complete, is where should my chapters end?

That's a great question! And it doesn't have a definitive answer. Darn it.

First, be sure you've got your novel in proper plot order. Do all that moving of scenes before you try to peruse and shift your chapter ends. Once I've done that, I use several criteria for deciding where to end my chapters.

The first, oddly enough, is to make sure they aren't too long. An average page count. I shoot for fifteen to twenty pages, most of the time.

I find chapters that run much shorter or longer than that don't feel like chapters. Most of the books I read have chapters in the fifteen to twenty-five page range. So, that's what feels right.

Not that I don't break that rule when needed. See Rule # 2.

My Rule # 2 is: make it hard for the reader to put the book down! Yup. Use cliffhangers. Mini ones, more often than gigantic ones, or your readers will feel manipulated. (And your plot line will be beyond belief.)

Though I can't always manage it, I try to leave my readers hanging at the end of every chapter. You can do this by stopping in the middle of the action. Choosing the correct middle of the action... is not so easy.

Read a bunch of books in your chosen genre. How do those authors make you want to keep reading? (Or don't they?) Where did they stop the action? Does it feel right?

I break mine where it feels right to me. Where the reader thinks, "But what happens now!"

I've been practicing a long time, and it might take you awhile to get that "feeling". Try breaking your books into "logical" chapters first. Then try shifting those endings to the middle of the previous scene and see if it still reads well.

Does it? Great! If not, try a different point in your scene. Can't put it down now? Perfect!

Hopefully, these tips will help you on your way to learning how to write a book. If not, let me know what else you want to know by contacting me . I'm always glad to help!