Adventures in Worldbuilding Part 1: Bookkeeping

Which came first, the chicken or the galactic empire? Although science has determined the egg came first, our imaginations rarely work in such a logical order.
 
Sometimes it’s more top-down, beginning with the broad strokes—ancient/futuristic, egalitarian/dictatorial, coffee/whatever else isn’t coffee—and fill in the details as we go.
Other times it’s bottom-up, from the faintest whiff of idea pollination: a character quirk, an interesting street corner, a recipe. Often it's a muddle of the two.
 
For me, the idea for Naion (the megacity setting of Centricity) came from an image. From that image, a sediment of paperwork accumulated, both physical and digital. A thousand inchoate descriptions, from social morays to technical blueprints to character traits. Little by little, this chicken-scratch buried me. It's as bad as it sounds; suffocating under a heap of angry chickens is a terrible way for stories to die.

Every time I needed to access one of these nuggets of imagination excreta, I had to sift through so much irrelevant stuff. I wasted hours and days looking instead of writing. If you’ve ever read The Phantom Tollbooth, I’d become my own personal Terrible Trivium, moving sand endlessly back and forth because I hadn’t bothered to do the things I'll share with you here.
 
I now do, mostly. Growth.

Deep world building is history building (even if it’s an implied history since things don’t just poof into existence) and *accurate* history is about record keeping. Kings, robot clones, corporate spies, battalions of elite ferret shock troops all make for exciting stories, but empires last because Johnny B. Accountant stayed late at the office.
 
Keeping records as you go, and updating them as needed, will be a gift to your future self. Love yourself.
 
Which records? Here are 5 suggestions to get you started.

A mind map is a terrible thing to waste

The moment you birth a character/organization into existence, it’s common to sketch out a profile. Name, characteristics, etc. The very next step should be adding said character to a mind map.
 
You can categorize using a different shape/color for different spheres. For example, the category “job,” with a gray block for government employees, a blue oval for the private sector, and so on. Then link their relationships to other characters. Again, you can customize the type of link (dash, curved, etc.) based on the type of relationship.   
 
In addition to being a reference guide, a mind map can spark ideas when you get stuck about who should do what next. It also allows you to see redundancies so you can cut unnecessary characters.

I use a free version of Edraw.

Encyclopedic recall

Some prefer “book bible,” I like encyclopedia. This is pretty self-explanatory. The moment a concept or word that does not exist in our reality springs forth, record it and define it. You can categorize it by type (for example, technology) and sub-categorize it alphabetically.

To go one step further you can track the location of every instance a term shows up in your manuscript.

Timelines, timelines, timelines

See how I wrote timelines three times? That’s because I suggest making three of them. You could try jamming all the information into one. If you’re a master packer. I’m not.
 
The first is for scenes: who, what, where, when.
 
The second is for character arcs, which track the growth of your characters over time, and what inspired their change. Don’t forget the world itself, which is also a character that changes. For example, if you have a gun battle at the starport, it may increase security for other characters not involved. This cross-referencing will help your world feel more real.
 
The third is the plot arc, which, as it sounds, tracks your progression through the plot, with major events highlighted.
 
I use Aeon 2 but there are lots of options.

Maps

Your name doesn’t need to be Rand McNally to sketch out a basic map of the area(s) where your story takes place. This is important for judging distances and travel times. All other things being equal, it takes longer to go 10 miles than 2. Don’t forget to take into account terrain, mode of transportation, etc. when determining if Jackson can swoop in to save Mike in Grimsville five minutes after defeating Mr. Evil at Dark Pond.

Notes as You Go

In an unpaid endorsement, I have found the Scrivener app to be a lifesaver in more ways than one, but primarily for its ability to organize metadata. For every scene/chapter I write, I keep a running tally of all the people and stuff that shows up.
 
This is possible in a basic word processor as well, and if that’s what you’re using, you can use the insert > table function to create a table. On the left hand, your chapter titles, at the top, the categories to keep track of, including but not limited to:
 
People
Groups (Companies, Government Agencies, etc.)
Places
Tech/Magic
Society (for laws, social mores, taboos, etc.)

Bonus Tips:

Cross-reference
You can create links to documents on your own hard drive or cloud account. This way, the information is made easily accessible without cluttering up the document you’re working on.
 
Update ASAP
As soon as you make a change to your story, change the tables/maps/etc. that the change affects.
 
Why?
Because you want to be kind to your future self, and not leave them with a tangle of accumulated changes.
 
Also, you’ll be able to see immediately the ripple effects of your change. You may remove a character, thinking he’s unimportant, only to realize he’s the one who bought the poisoned milk in chapter two.
 
Don’t throw anything away
If you remove a big chunk because it’s not working, ctrl-X cntrl-V it to a new file. However, you’ll want to keep these organized. Create folders named things like “city descriptions.”
 
Save multiple versions
I can’t tell you how many times I changed something, only to later change it back. Or how many times I wrote a scene for one character that got cut, then used it later for a different character. You can even make different folders for different types of material (character descriptions, locations, etc.) With any major rearrangement, save a new version of the draft, and hack away, carefree.
 
Hopefully this helps! Write on!

Nathaniel Henderson is an author currently working on a cyberpunk-injected book series. For updates and exclusive content, sign up for his newsletter.