Back in the early 2000s, maybe around 2004 or 2005 or thereabouts, I started printing out calendar pages and marking chapters on it. Like chapter one happens on Monday, so I'd write CH 1 on that square of the calendar and do this for every chapter in the book.
This idea was born of necessity when I was on tight deadlines for my publishers and didn't have time to read and re-read chapters, trying to figure out how many days had passed. I'd print out the entire book, and write days at the top of the pages. Ugh!
Clearly, the calendar made my life much easier. (I just found a reference to starting the calendar system while I was writing IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR, so that would be 2006 when I started using this system.)
But I kept thinking there must be a better way. I tried using software, some meant for project management and some specifically for writing, but I always go back to the calendar. It's quicker and easier in almost every respect.
But while I was working on The Paladin League, I ran into something I hadn't needed to deal with before--a long time span. Wicked Obsession and half of Wicked Intention take place 2 years before the main storyline in Intention. All the subsequent books in the series go forward, but now I have a huge wad of calendar pages. Held together with a clip.
I'm doing edits on Wicked Salvation and I'm starting to write the final book in this arc, but there is a second Paladin League arc I'm starting to plan out. That's going to add more calendar pages. I wish I had one of those machines that spiral binds paper so I could flip around my calendar pages more easily.
