I have NEVER been good at charts. I am horrid at timelines, which is ironic given my history degree and the fact that I need everything ON a timeline in order to understand things. But actually charting out, "This happens on this day and this happens on that day," just tends to leave me cold. Same with charting out subplots.

I can't say I'm one of those fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants writers who makes everything up as I go along. I definitely need an outline. I need databases of information about my world's history and past, but when it comes to how my story works...it's all in my head. I know that Edward runs away at dawn on Beltane and it's not until three days later that any evidence as to his whereabouts is located. I know that Jude will arrive in NC within a few days after that and Edward will already have been with Byron and Aoife for almost a week. So this means that Edward took a day, maybe two to run from Italy to NC remaining undercover the entire time (this is a world with airplanes and whatnot, so it's not like he literally ran). By the time the Church finds evidence of where he's gone, he's already there. By the time Jude and Aoife arrive at Byron's house, Edward is already getting on Byron's nerves even if it's only been a couple days since he woke up from his coma.

All of this happens in a little over a week from Beltane. But it's most of the book. That week takes a long time. And the reader will live through it twice, once from Jude's perspective and once from Byron/Aoife's.

But I can't say I have a chart. It doesn't feel like a week, though it's certainly no longer. It just feels like the natural progression of my story. It'll take as long as it takes. A week is just sensible. It's me looking at what my gut is telling me about this story and applying some natural progression of time. It's really quite arbitrary because, really, it'll take as long as it takes.

Noticing that everyone else has charts makes me wonder if perhaps I'm going about all this the wrong way. I am a builder of databases, but I am also someone who dreams up a set of parameters and just sets my characters free. So long as Jude realizes Edward is innocent, gets to Daniel Aberforth on time for the Priest to die, and then notices Aoife trying to spy on him...the other stuff will depend entirely upon Jude. He'll want to get to Edward first in order to keep him safe, he'll be disgusted by Aberforth and try to save a Witch (which is against the code of his organization), and he'll follow Aoife figuring that she'll lead him to Edward. Then they'll fight and their relationship begins. A relationship, mind, that has become one of my favorite romances because it's so bloody normal. No passionate declarations of love in the rain or fighting the attraction until they can't deny it any more. Just Jude, whose whole life has stripped him of his own identity, and Aoife, who is one of the few people who can look past the warrior and smack him upside the head for being an idiot (as well as being totally understanding, but she wanted everyone to know she WILL hit him if necessary). I love them.

But I am definitely not a chart person. Except for my world. Everything else is just me letting my characters speak.

I still feel a lot less prepared that all you chart people, though. It's like I'm one of those self-loathing freestyle/planner hybrids...
-Quaddy

ps- I love my characters. I just have to say that again. I love them.

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