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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38879
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38879
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Writing a complex story with multiple storylines, I find it useful to chart things. I draw a timeline: what happens when, what age characters are at the time, which event occur simultaneously, how long it should take to travel from point A to point B. On a timeline, it's easy to see whether I've made a mistake. Once I've given a character some specific appearance, (I lean towards discovery writing, so I don't pre-plan this kind of stuff,) I make note of it in a "characters" file, so I don't introduce discrepancies later on. In short, **anything that I would later need to double-check, be it worldbuilding, character description, story timeline etc., gets filed** away. The software I use is OneNote, because I don't need to buy it and it's sufficiently flexible for my needs. You might find that some other software suits you better.

At the same time, there has to be a plot reason for events to occur in your story. Consider the overarching shape of your story: what are you trying to say? At its core, what is the story about? **If you, the writer, do not remember what happens to whom and when, maybe things are happening too randomly** , maybe the "why" and the "where" do not sufficiently matter. If that's the case, maybe you should re-examine the story, start to finish, and decide what serves it, and what is meaningless.

Finally, and this ties back to the above point about reasons, **if the story is confusing to you, it will also be confusing to the reader.** @MatthewDave's solution is to simplify the story. I would suggest instead ordering it. Make sure there's a cause-and-effect relationship between events, so it "makes sense" that event X happens to character Y at time Z. Logical connections make understanding and remembering easier. If you have multiple story lines, make sure the reader knows what events occur simultaneously in different places, how the plot lines relate to each other. When all story elements form one picture, it becomes less confusing - akin to a tapestry in progress, rather than a heap of tangled yarn.

Original score: 4