Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41911
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41911
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Make a spreadsheet.

In case you don't know:

_A spreadsheet is a file which stores data in a tabular form. Popular software for spreadsheet making are, of course, Microsoft Excel or the open source variant Libre Office Calc. Or you could use "Google Spreadsheets", if you like working with the Google suite._

My method is having in the same spreadsheet as many "sheets" (e.g. pages) i need, divided by topic. At the present moment, I'm using:

- A **Glossary** sheet to keep track of all the words, nonces and peculiar phrases that are used in my setting;

- A **Character** sheet where I write down a few detail on each character (physical description, relevant features, powers, fears, etc) as need be;

- A **Timeline** sheet where I note down the events happened before the start of my story;

- A **Location** sheet where I list the peculiarities of all the places my character visit as their travel progresses;

- A **Review** sheet that lists what I need to review in the already written chapters.

Those of course are only rough ideas of what you could do.

I'm a discovery writer and I tend to keep most of the ideas in my mind, so I'm mostly using the spreadsheet as a quick reference for things that I cannot keep in mind (the novel being 200 pages long by now).

You don't have to build an huge spreadsheet from the start, you can start from what seems useful to you and expand it as you go. The main goal (and challenge) is to store information in a quick, efficient way, so you can bring back the concepts in your mind when the need arises.

So my method is: **write first, record later.** I stop and update the spreadsheet only when I'm adding more information to my story that will be needed later on. But if you are more of a planner/outliner, you may want to consider the idea of **outline first, write later** which is, of course, the opposite. You may want to put down the essentials details of your religions on the spreadsheet from the start, so you'll have a common ground to use as a reference when starting your story.

The main advantage of this method is keeping things quick. A spreadsheet is good for taking quick notes, rather than long-winded descriptions. You mentioned keeping a wiki: that's a great way of documenting stuff, if you're planning to write a lot of worldbuilding out of your actual story.

My underlying reason in suggesting a spreadsheet rather than a full-fledged wiki is brevity. You can easily get lost in giving your wiki a sensible structure, and you can easily catch [Worldbuilder's Disease](http://thewritersaurus.com/2015/03/06/the-dreaded-world-builders-disease/) by feeling compelled to write long, detailed description for each and every wikipage. Also, when you need to get that information back, you may spend time re-reading an entire page when you just needed one tiny detail.

A spreadsheet is designed to hold a lot of data in single-cell value. And there is just so much you can hold into a cell or a line. It forces you to be brief, summarizing only what matters, and that comes in handy when you need to lookup for information.

Original score: 7