I was introduced to this concept by Sassy Brit’s Alternative Read blog, via a new writing group I joined recently. The idea is to reveal your most awkward moment as a writer, share it, laugh about it. And, in this world full of misery and political strife, I say, ‘Why not?’

So, here goes.

When I was writing my 600,000+ word epic adult fantasy ‘A Seared Sky’ I reached a point where I had 102 named characters. Keeping track of them through the three volumes was no easy task. My darling wife acts as my initial beta reader as she has an excellent memory and a good knowledge of the English Language. So, she finds things I miss on my read aloud edits from the printed page. It is these pages I give her when I’ve used them to correct any errors or made any changes on the digital version on my PC.

I was busy doing my penultimate edit on book 2 of the series ‘Partings’ while Valerie was doing her valuable stuff on the first volume ‘Joinings’ when she popped her pretty head around my study door, sheafs of typescript in her hand.

‘Sorry to tell you this, but you can’t have him doing this in this chapter.’ She pointed to a line of action one of the characters, a ship’s captain, was involved in.

‘Why not?’

She smiled in that way that always melts my heart. ‘Well, because you killed him off in book 1!’

Her memory and accuracy spared me what would’ve been very humiliating had it gone public in the books. As a result, I devised a spreadsheet showing the 3-year timeline across the top and the full list of characters, colour-coded, down the side, and entered each of their situations in the appropriate squares, so I could ensure I knew where everyone was for the rest of the book. As a character was culled, I greyed out their line on the spreadsheet and transferred the character to the bottom of the sheet. Problem solved. And it meant I could complete the edit on the final volume ‘Convergence’ without worrying I might create a similarly awkward moment!

Find Sassy Brit, new writing group, all my books, Joinings, Partings, Convergence, if you’re curious about this trilogy.