Keeping Track of Time

One thing that I've discovered is helpful when writing a story is using a timeline to keep track of things.

As I worked on my current novel, I was not sure of the exact length of time and was even more unsure of the realism, as one of the characters is pregnant all throughout the story. To make sure that this remained realistic (i.e. morning sickness and more visible signs of her pregnancy), I made a timeline. It was nothing fancy, as I just used real dates like May 29th. Once I had the story start on a certain day, then I went through every chapter and made notes on how much time passed between days. It didn't take me very long, and soon I had a timeline and a good idea of the timespan (discovering that my first novel takes place over a period of a few months, between late "May" and either September or October), and everything fit in very nicely. While I'm not going to use precise dates in the story, the timeline did serve its purpose of giving me a better sense of time and making everything work realistically.

I recommend using it, even if your story is spread out over a year or two. Tolkien used a calender for his Lord of the Rings, beginning with the Second Age and the last date being Aragorn's death in the Fourth Age (but you needn't go to the great depths that he did with his). His use of the timeline for the story itself is very helpful, especially when you have several characters all doing different things who later all come together.

As I said, a timeline is a handy tool for novel-writing and keeping things organized.

Get Real... Really

One thing that I have noticed in several stories nowadays is how unrealistic things can become. Even if you have a fantasy story, you still have to keep things realistic.

For example, I know of a story where a boy has never ridden a horse in real life but when he goes to the fantasy realm he automatically can leap on and off horses like a pro. That is not realistic at all. Another example from a different story is a boy who has never picked up a sword before and after a few months of practice is considered an expert. Let's be frank: these things do not happen in real life and thus do not happen in a fantasy world. Even if you have a natural aptitude for something, it takes a long time to develop that skill.

Staying real doesn't just apply to your character's skills or whatnot. Here are some other examples.

- If your character(s) do a lot of traveling, make sure they're going at expected speeds. Even if they have high endurance, they're not going to run a hundred miles in a day (unless you're Leto Atreides).

- If your character has been wounded, make sure he has plenty of recovery time. One normally doesn't get stabbed in the arm and then the next day use it in a major battle. If you want to be realistic, he's going to be in a lot of pain and won't be able to use his arm for a while.

I can't think of any other examples at the moment, but do remember this: keep things realistic in your story, fantasy or not.