The story I wrote takes place in “real time” by that I mean an imagined year of the current year. I was about halfway through when I realized to interact with the world around them I needed to know exactly what day of the year it is. It would be silly to have them looking at tulips in July. It became apparent that I needed to keep track of time as well as the characters.
So I printed out a generic calendar from about ten years from now. It isn’t important that I say it’s April 17th, but it is important to stay on track.
As I went back to the beginning, I wrote down any significant plot events on the calendar. As I moved forward I discovered that by the end of the book, the story was off by two weeks. At the beginning I eluded how long they would be working for. Instead of changing the conversation that outlined the length of the summer job, I wrote the difference in. It gave me the opportunity to add a little more dynamic to the mystery that I hadn’t thought about before. Fifty days in, someone in charge slips up and gives the protagonist has a very large clue. This is an important event. That clue leads her quickly to solve the grand mystery just in time. I actually planned it to be that day so if I refer back it’s an easy number to remember.
Having a timeline or calendar of events made things much easier. I can refer back to it or even have the characters refer back. At one point, the number of days is actually mentioned. If a reader were to follow along that carefully, they would find it accurate. Even though it is a fantasy, some reality is required.
My advice about time lines.
Use them even if it’s not important it’s a fantastic way to keep track of events or interactions that drive the story. Did Joe make the ominous phone call before or after he got the internship? If I need to check I can refer to a calendar and not have to flip back chapters to find it if I forget.
-Sheryl
Here is a link to a previous post. The first Fifty pages. Why are they so important?
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I wrote a book. Now what? 
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Thanks. I will take a look.
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This is a great and clever method of tracking time. I’ve seen many mystery and thriller writers employ calendar type tracking devices. What kind of mystery book is this going to be? There are so many sub-genres in mystery these days. Thanks for sharing this!
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Thanks, it is what made sense to me as a person that requires visuals. The book itself isn’t a mystery book per say. The protagonist is put into a very unusual circumstance. She doesn’t accept the simplified explanation given to her and decides to uncover the truth herself. It’s a small side story within the story that becomes important for her character development. Determining Genre is more difficult than I expected it to be. I’m currently working on figuring it out.
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