Create Characters with Continuity

Question

"When you create characters or settings for a novel and you do a series is it best to use a spreadsheet to make sure that you get continuity?"

- Rebecca Anne, Wolverhampton, UK

Answer

Hi Rebecca Anne,

First off, thanks for being the first to ask a question in the newly-launched Novel Writing Q&A section!

Continuity is a very important thing in novel writing - not just when you create characters and settings, but with everything. Nobody wants to read a novel where...

• a blue-eyed character later has green eyes, or
• a kitchen overlooks the street but later overlooks the back garden, or
• a character buys pork chops for dinner but later cooks steaks.

It can sometimes be difficult keeping tabs on these little details when writing a slim work of fiction - if you write a big fat book taking place over many decades or, in your case, a whole series of novels, it is easier than you might imagine to overlook these things.

(In the first novel I ever wrote, I changed a character's name mid-draft but forgot to alter it in the part of the novel I had already written - and I didn't pick up on it during revision either.)

As to using spread sheets, do whatever works for you. Me, I'm an old-fashioned kind of guy who prefers reams of paper and 2B pencils for these things. As a matter of fact, I don't even know how to use a spreadsheet to work out my finances, much less for creating characters in fiction - but I'm probably in the minority there.

Bottom line? Writing a novel is an incredibly complex process and the only way to remain on top of it (instead of letting it get on top of you) is to be ruthlessly organized. Whether you achieve that using computers or pencil and paper is an individual choice - but achieve it you must.

Harvey