One of our main writing tools is spreadsheets. This is M.’s specialty, and he may go a bit overboard in the use of them. We have our Master Calendar Spreadsheet along with book specific sub-calendars. We have a spreadsheet of the temperatures for the Crossing and the Hiding and how they would affect the planet’s climate. We have a spreadsheet for the characters split into Auxule, Jyrye, Fleggish, and Dormankye along with a separate spreadsheet for terms and definitions.
Probably our most used spreadsheet though is the distance and time sheet. M. found how long each method of transportation takes, how far each city is from one another, and made a calculator so we can plug in distance, method of transport, how many hours traveled per day, and find out how many days it would take to get from place to place.
It’s amazing how often the distance that we calculate end up being perfect for what we need in the story though often we add in what we call fudge factor since we all know that nothing ever goes as planned. And yes, there are a few new towns in this sheet that you haven’t been to yet, but that is all we’ll say about that.