The Devil Is In The Details

Keeping it all straight when writing novels

by Nancy Christie

Note from Joanna: I was so impressed by Nancy Christie’s comment about keeping things straight that I asked her to share more. This is the first part of a three-part series.

You’ve probably heard the proverb “The devil is in the details.” According to Dictionary.com, it means that small elements might cause a big project to fail—a truism that definitely applies to novel writing.

If you accidentally change the character’s age, physical characteristics, or (gulp!) first name during the writing process and do not catch it during your final proofreading before it goes to print, I can almost guarantee some sharp-eyed reader will notice it. And then spend the rest of the reading time looking for other errors instead of enjoying the story. Or worse, appear at one of your book events and helpfully point it out. (Yes, it happens, and if you’re a reader, please don’t do that!)

Being a pantser, I had to come up with a way to keep all the details straight when I started writing my Midlife Moxie novels—something I didn’t need to worry about when writing short stories.

Here are some of the tools and methods I use that you might find helpful.

A blank calendar

When writing my novels, I first decide the year the story opens in and then download a blank calendar from Win Calendar to cover that time period. (If the story takes place over multiple years, I download all relevant calendars.)

I then enter all major holidays—Christmas, New Year’s, Mother’s Day, etc. Why? Because if you make it clear what year the story takes place in, and you mention that Christmas falls on a Tuesday, but in that year, it’s on a Thursday, someone will notice. Trust me.

From that point on, the calendar serves as both a reverse outline of key events and a way to keep track of future ones. For example, Transforming Tessa, my latest Midlife Moxie novel, takes place almost totally in 2023. However, the main character’s husband died the previous December (no spoiler—it’s right in the beginning). So, in addition to downloading all the 2023 months, I took the December 2022 calendar and added the date of his death and the date of the funeral.

I also note the birthdays and other key dates for relevant characters on the calendars. Every time an important date shows up in my novel, I add it to the calendar if it isn’t already there—the reverse outline part.

As for keeping track of future events, if, in the course of writing the story, I decide that at some future date the character is supposed to do something or see someone or something is supposed to happen, I put it on the calendar approximately when I think it’s going to take place and highlight it in yellow. That way, I know that when I get to that time in the story, I better include that event.

Finally, for each entry on the calendar, I put the chapter number in brackets before the item. That way, if I need to refer to it, I can find it quickly. And if the chapter changes in subsequent drafts, it’s easy to update.

Next Monday, Nancy will share more ideas for keeping us organized when we’re writing.

---

Nancy Christie is the award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction books, including her Midlife Moxie Novel Series. She’s the creator and host of the Living the Writing Life podcast and teaches workshops and gives presentations to groups, at libraries and at conferences. Visit her website and follow her on Facebook, Substack, Threads, Bluesky and X.

---

Mystery Mondays Guest

Tonight, our guest will be Ann Goldfarb. Join us at 7 p.m. ET at Joanna’s Readers. Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1602372550058785/