Writing in a Timeline

It’s Monday Blog time and I don’t know what to write about. How about not knowing what to write about? Yeah, that sounds good.

I wrote a series of short stories which I’ve been steadily posting every Friday. Well, that bank of stories is depleting and I’m not coming up with any new ideas on how to continue the ones I left open-ended or even new stories to start. That’s a problem. So how to fix it?

Well obviously, sooner rather than later I’ll need to brainstorm some new story ideas. Things I’ll need to consider, do I want to use my existing stable of characters in new stories or will I create new characters. I’m not sold on creating new characters or at least not very many, so that would leave new stories using existing characters. Okay, easy enough. When do these stories take place? The book I want to write theoretically takes place immediately after the events described in Tale of the Tinkerwood, which occurs more or less simultaneously with the events described in The Adventures of Red Rich which was supposed to happen shortly after The Meeting of Sass and Mouser, only then Sass appeared in Dust-up in the Burroughs (Big Oonch’s story) and certain events would lead one to believe that THAT story happens after The Meeting of Sass and Mouser, only Mouser doesn’t appear in the Big Oonch’s story, so obviously it happens before…or something happened to Mouser. So yeah, there’s a timeline issue that I need to address.

So far I’ve written in two different time periods. The “present” which is when the main cast’s stories take place and the “past”, which is when Enzo and Pepetus are around. Enzo first meets Pepetus before he’s crowned king, so that means Enzo’s story comes first:

The Age of Animus
Enzo the Roly-Poly Puppy
How a Cat Became King: The Story of Pepetus, Eighth King of the Age

I can write any stories involving Enzo and Pepetus and they will not affect the stories involving the main cast any more than their original stories did.

Mouser isn’t in Dust-up in the Burroughs, so that one happens “first”. Sass has a scroll in that one and she’s hired to find a scroll in The Meeting of Sass and Mouser. Either it’s two different scrolls or I can edit Dust-up in the Burroughs so that it involves something other than a scroll so there’s no confusion. I think I’ll opt for the latter. *REMINDER* I need to think of something else for Sass to be carrying.

Chapter One of my hypothetical book opens with Cyran coming home after the events in Tale of the Tinkerwood and he crosses paths with Sass, Mouser and Red Rich. It’s alluded to that they’re laying low in Bree after the events which transpire in The Adventures of Red Rich. Since Mouser is there, both stories have to take place after The Meeting of Sass and Mouser.

Dust-up in the Burroughs
The Meeting of Sass and Mouser
The Adventures of Red Rich
Tale of the Tinkerwood
Hypothetical Book

Big Oonch isn’t a main character in my book (sorry Fab). He’s a character with experience when Dust-up in the Burroughs starts, so I can tell stories with him that happen before or after that. If I decide to feature Sass in any of them, they have to be after (but before the book), because that’s where they meet and Mouser shouldn’t be in any of them because she hasn’t met him yet.

Red Rich and Cyran are characters with a limited amount of experience. I can tell stories featuring them that occur before The Adventures of Red Rich and Tale of the Tinkerwood but preferably not too many.

Nektara isn’t a main character in my book either (sorry Carolyn). But Todrick definitely is. He’s introduced in Nektara’s Tale and then goes almost straight into his appearance in the book. So Nektara’s Tale happens after Tale of the Tinkerwood and before the book . Todrick and Nektara are both starting out in the world inNektara’s Tale, so no stories that happen before the events in the book should feature them. So Todrick is off the table and until Nektara’s Tale is completed, Nektara can only appear in that story.

So what about Barnaby, Zoë and Popkin. Will they show up in the book? Probably. Will they be main characters? Probably not. (sorry Lyne) Barnaby hasn’t featured in any stories thus far, so he’s got no strings attached. Zoë of the Mouse Wing occurs when Zoë is just starting out in the Mouse Wing but they’re free to meet Cyran, Red Rich, Sass (without Mouser), Big Oonch and Barnaby after that story. Because the Mouse Wing mostly operates around Sunnyvale, the likelihood of her meeting Big Oonch or Barnaby is low. Red Rich and Cyran are only slightly more likely. Sass moves around a lot, so they could meet. Just to be on the safe side I’ll say that Zoë of the Mouse Wing happens before Dust-up in the Burroughs.

So the timeline as it stands right now is as follows: