Last Saturday I did something I should have done one year ago: I broke open a new IKEA copybook (white pages, sturdy cardboard cover, rubber band strap to keep it closed), and a new BIC black-ink pen, and I started writing down everything I know about my Aculeo & Amunet stories.
Everything.
A timeline for the stories written and being developed.
Another timeline for historical events and characters.
A short but thorough fact-file for each major character.
A list of locations.
Notes on stuff like currencies and other odds and ends.
The blue copybook (which is actually somewhat purple, when the light strikes it at the right angle), will serve three purposes:
. it will be a quick reference for those unnerving moments in which I can’t remember what of Aculeo’s hands is scarred by a self-inflicted knife-cut, or how many elephants are tattooed between the shoulderblades of Amunet’s sister…
As the number of published stories grows, keeping track of details (was it Kleonikos or Cleonikos or Cleonicos?) becomes harder.
. it will serve as the basis for the forthcoming Aculeo & Amunet roleplaying sourcebook – saves me time, I’ll just need to type the relevant stuff and straighten the rough edges.
. it will be a general repository for ideas worth tackling in future stories. I’ll just write them down as they come, and develop them later.
All in one compact, portable, low-tech package.
And for starters, writing those first pages surprised me with how much I know about a lot of secondary characters, and how little I know about my main characters.
But I guess it’s all right this way.
Also I had the opportunity of noticing how bad my handwriting has become with age and intensive keyboard-use.
My old primary school teacher would be really disappointed (but probably not surprised).
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Karavansara 
7 July 2014 at 10:10
I have my own version of that blue-and-somewhat-purple copybook, with most of the data regarding characters and background of a series of ebook I wrote, and I know how helpful it can be.
I find myself changing my mind too often about some topics that never were fixed in a story, only in my ruminations, and thus I fear having a handwritten version would be too messy, all erasing and rewriting and doodles and question marks.
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7 July 2014 at 11:01
I possess a copybook too, and it’s blue. I find it very useful, though I did not write many stories… just one, actually. I feel that the next one will be dark red, or bordeaux.
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