I use a lot of extra tools to bring Straag Rod to the blog, or lol, a version of it that I am satisfied with. I work hard on the story and it's definitely a process. Sometimes a painful one, sometimes a rewarding one.
As many know, my main character of Straag Rod is 243 years old. That is a lot of history to cover. A lot of backstory. I also delve heavily into lore. Keeping all of this straight for story-telling is a huge challenge and here are some things that I do to keep me sane. Continuity is very hard to maintain. I do my best. I go back and fix stuff a lot, especially when new lore comes to light. I just had to account for Altmeri cremation. That was fun, but ultimately a rewarding experience to keep current with things.
1. Timeline - A rough document that shows what characters have been doing or will be doing within a certain time frame. This timeline accounts for travel time and I use it to make sure that events unfold in a logical manner. In game, the Civil War takes a bout 7-15 in-game days to finish. LOL, I don't think that's happening. 
I have filled it quite a few events in his long lifespan. Not covering every day, but I do need to make sure significant events are covered.
2. Outline - A rough document that shows overall arcs in the story. Where questline stories will fall. What can overlap, what can't. The order by which things will happen. It's different from the timeline, less detailed.
3. Notes - I play with the Requiem overhaul, which makes significant changes to the vanilla game. I keep notes on quests to write-down these differences. I also, as a I play, write notes on how to approach questlines in ways that make sense, and I write down ideas for plot that come to me as I play. These are handwritten and often a mess. Sometimes, I'll type them up, just so I can read my own writing.
4. Screenshots - I like to try to describe environments. Screenshots help a great deal. They also help me with the artwork.
5. Links to the Imperial Library, Thu'um.corg, UESP, the reddit requiem pages, and the lore archive at Tamriel Tales. I visit these places a lot. They help a lot with layouts of dungeons and ruins.
6. Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Paint, and Paint.net - Helps with formatting art for TOCs, buttons, and screenshots for artwork pertaining to Straag Rod.
7. Research thread in the Lore section. It's about Dawnguard right now, because that's what I'm researching for Book 2. It's used to ponder lore questions and how to make sense of the questline. I cannot stress how awesome this section is for questions. Phil, Matt, and Tom are a great resources.
8. Friends - I talk with friends a lot about Straag Rod. I have a few that know a lot of details from Aelberon's story. Likewise, I know many details of their stories. We bounce ideas off each other, share frustrations, run paragraphs or chapters by each other. These people have been wonderful in the development of Straag Rod.
9. Steam forums - Birthplace of Aelberon and still the place that gets first drafts of new material. They don't get the edited stuff, but it is very helpful to put the story there first. I get a sense for how things go and then it is edited for Tamriel Vault. Sometimes, the chapters are just cleaned up. Sometimes they get huge overhauls.
10. A Sisterbane - LOL, Sotek knows what I'm talking about. Been trying to get her to join the Blog for a while and am heavily considering fixing up an old laptop to get her here. Loves reading and has a great sense of grammar and mechanics. Chapters are usually read to her before they go up. She doesn't get everything, but she does catch a lot. She is my actual sister. Really, she's someone who reads my stuff first.
Those are the tools that I use and for me personally, they help a lot. My apologies for the wall of text. LOL, sigh, okay. You all expect it from me already.
I use a lot of extra tools to bring Straag Rod to the blog, or lol, a version of it that I am satisfied with. I work hard on the story and it's definitely a process. Sometimes a painful one, sometimes a rewarding one.
As many know, my main character of Straag Rod is 243 years old. That is a lot of history to cover. A lot of backstory. I also delve heavily into lore. Keeping all of this straight for story-telling is a huge challenge and here are some things that I do to keep me sane. Continuity is very hard to maintain. I do my best. I go back and fix stuff a lot, especially when new lore comes to light. I just had to account for Altmeri cremation. That was fun, but ultimately a rewarding experience to keep current with things.
1. Timeline - A rough document that shows what characters have been doing or will be doing within a certain time frame. This timeline accounts for travel time and I use it to make sure that events unfold in a logical manner. In game, the Civil War takes a bout 7-15 in-game days to finish. LOL, I don't think that's happening. I have filled it quite a few events in his long lifespan. Not covering every day, but I do need to make sure significant events are covered.
2. Outline - A rough document that shows overall arcs in the story. Where questline stories will fall. What can overlap, what can't. The order by which things will happen. It's different from the timeline, less detailed.
3. Notes - I play with the Requiem overhaul, which makes significant changes to the vanilla game. I keep notes on quests to write-down these differences. I also, as a I play, write notes on how to approach questlines in ways that make sense, and I write down ideas for plot that come to me as I play. These are handwritten and often a mess. Sometimes, I'll type them up, just so I can read my own writing.
4. Screenshots - I like to try to describe environments. Screenshots help a great deal. They also help me with the artwork.
5. Links to the Imperial Library, Thu'um.corg, UESP, the reddit requiem pages, and the lore archive at Tamriel Tales. I visit these places a lot. They help a lot with layouts of dungeons and ruins.
6. Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Paint, and Paint.net - Helps with formatting art for TOCs, buttons, and screenshots for artwork pertaining to Straag Rod.
7. Research thread in the Lore section. It's about Dawnguard right now, because that's what I'm researching for Book 2. It's used to ponder lore questions and how to make sense of the questline. I cannot stress how awesome this section is for questions. Phil, Matt, and Tom are a great resources.
8. Friends - I talk with friends a lot about Straag Rod. I have a few that know a lot of details from Aelberon's story. Likewise, I know many details of their stories. We bounce ideas off each other, share frustrations, run paragraphs or chapters by each other. These people have been wonderful in the development of Straag Rod.
9. Steam forums - Birthplace of Aelberon and still the place that gets first drafts of new material. They don't get the edited stuff, but it is very helpful to put the story there first. I get a sense for how things go and then it is edited for Tamriel Vault. Sometimes, the chapters are just cleaned up. Sometimes they get huge overhauls.
10. A Sisterbane - LOL, Sotek knows what I'm talking about. Been trying to get her to join the Blog for a while and am heavily considering fixing up an old laptop to get her here. Loves reading and has a great sense of grammar and mechanics. Chapters are usually read to her before they go up. She doesn't get everything, but she does catch a lot. She is my actual sister. Really, she's someone who reads my stuff first.
Those are the tools that I use and for me personally, they help a lot. My apologies for the wall of text. LOL, sigh, okay. You all expect it from me already.
