I’ll be honest, I hate timelines, they are a pain in the butt. Sadly, they are very necessary in books. How many times have you read a story and went, “What? Wait a second. That’s not right!” Sometimes it’s minor, and sometimes it is MAJOR! Enough to annoy a reader and turn them off from your books.

I work hard to make sure my timelines flow in my books. I track them through a spreadsheet in Excel, and one of my proofreaders loves to nit-pick them so intently that I believe she has an addiction. It’s a good addiction!!! One that I seriously appreciate!

Last week I wrote about 27,000 words on a new book. Riley is the fourth book in the Loving a Young Series, and it is coming out in February. I was rocking right along until I paused and went, Wait! I need to adjust the timing on this! Then I made changes. I ended up having to make more changes and add in two chapters, and then I needed more changes.

Then I realized I had screwed the timeline up so much that I didn’t even know what everyone was doing or when!! So I had to stop and find another way! I ended up using my regular calendar connected to my email.

Now I have it all down correctly! But man did that take a while to get it corrected! Now, when you click on those lines, there are notes about the chapters and details of what needs to happen when! Perfect!

I do have to add that while Riley is an intense timeline – it is now where as crazy and intense as The Twisted Love Series! This picture is the timeline that used to be on my wall – That is 11 feet of timeline!! Take about details to track on that series!