Feeling Logical about Spreadsheets

An Essay on Writing
Dawn Goldsmith

When in doubt, ask IWW. Someone always comes up with an answer or at least a different perspective to a question.

My question involved spreadsheets:

“OK, I've avoided spreadsheets most of my life thinking they were for numbers people, not word people like me. But I am reading a review of Marisha Pessl's book "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" a novel and it says that she made spreadsheets for her characters and to chart the mystery.

Has anyone else done this? Or have any suggestions on how this would work? I'm really deficient in spreadsheet savvy, but am willing to learn if it will help me get a novel written!”

I don’t seem to know how to ask short questions. But many members read my request and responded. Much to my surprise and discovering this method, many fellow members already utilize spreadsheets and databases.

One member pointed out that spreadsheets are best used for brief items of data in addition to numbers. Brief being the operative word. To include large chunks of information it might not work so well.

Another offered her use of color coding to make finding specific information easier. She uses it for scenes, POV and characters’ scene count which helps balance and flow of the overall story.

Another IWW member keeps a spreadsheet of submission information, also color-coded. I admit that my accountant husband twisted my arm to do something similar (without color coding). And I have found it quite useful and fairly easy to keep up to date. I include categories: Market, Contact, Project, Date Queried, Response, Amount, Comments and Contract terms.

Ruth Douilette, who knows me far too well, suggested: “There are any number of ways to chart characters and plot that don't include spreadsheets if you're not comfortable with them. “If you love spreadsheets and are proficient in them, that would be perfect for you. But to learn spreadsheets just to organize characters and plot in a novel seems a waste of time to me.”

Lynn Hinkey, in a moment of clarity, realized that “Now that I've written this out I suspect the reason I don't make much progress on my novel is that I spend all my time playing with my ‘organizational tools’!” She uses a combination database for character information and background as well as post-it-notes “to keep on top of what’s happening ...”

And JJ, a spreadsheet fiend added, “I use them for everything, from finances to making decisions to organizing submissions and laying out my book.”

She uses two spreadsheets in writing her memoir. One to lay out the book with scenes, number of words, characters, themes, notes, etc. And the other works as a character map. “Each character has its own page. There I track the scenes where that character appears, the season, and what aspects of their character have been introduced. This helps to me to track the development of the character and to try to make sure they are appearing often enough to be remembered and not so often as to become dominant.” She adds, “As someone with a highly logical mind, spreadsheets are a good fit for me.”

Being a Feeler rather than a Logical Thinker, perhaps spreadsheets will be of less use to me. But in the scheme of things, I still think it will be beneficial. It will help me track who did what to whom, where they did it, and for heaven sakes, what’s that character’s name? Plus, I can color-code everything – that sounds like fun.

---

Dawn Goldsmith has had essays and nonfiction published in numerous venues. You can read her latest at the Christian Science Monitor, A patchwork of warmth and hope – in 10-inch squares.