Writer Tip - Those Pesky Little Details

My romantic suspense is starting to take a better shape. I really love the way the revision process tightens up my story. By the time I got to the end of the draft, the beginning needed considerable changes. I've made it halfway through chapter five and the beginning is finally matching the ending.

Except for the little details that I added without thinking. Eye color, tablecloths or pictures. Even "walk-on" characters have changed from the beginning to the ending.

• First and worst are all of those minor characters. I think my heroine's best friend had two first names and three last ones. The florist had two, one male and one female. While my hero's parents kept their names, their personalities change drastically. 
• An old truck switched hands a couple of times before I finally settled on its owner. It was also a blue Ford F150 and a brown Chevy. Jury's still out on that decision.
• One of my important secondary characters shows a strong heart adjustment from the beginning of the book to the ending. That's not such a bad thing. Except that her eye color changes along with her faith. Oops. She's not the only one. The BFF of my main character also has eye and hair color malfunctions. 
• One room houses several scenes. The living room decorations alter with each one. First a shelf has books and the walls have pictures. Then the shelves have nothing and the walls still have pictures. Next the walls have nothing and the shelves have pictures. Decide already!
• Although my novel is a suspense, there is an element of mystery involved and the clues of it have to be dropped a little at a time. This can be a booger. See, I don't want the clues to shout at anyone, but they have to be there and they have to remain consistent! Ultimate importance! But since they're sort of subtle, it's a royal pain to check on them!
• My calendar had problems throughout the story, too. I'd worked out that my main setting, a diner, was only opened from Monday through Friday. The story goes all week long though. My trouble is when something needs to happen in the diner when it's closed. Yeah, I don't know where the timing got off, but I've got some damage control to do.

So how do I fix this? I really do have a plan, I promise. 

• My first fix comes before I start writing. I set up a huge story board. On it, I organized my scenes according to the days in my story. Using that makes my calendar easy to see. It didn't help me much when I decided to keep the diner closed on Saturdays, but at least I could view a week at a time. 
• My story board is helping me with my clue situation too. I still have to search for them, but upon first pass, I put up sticky notes to flag where the hints are introduced. If I actually have to change one, I'll know where to start looking!
• I put the cars in the same realm as the other details in the background/setting. I've identified where they are mentioned by flagging my story board - new color! Now if I could just decide on the type and appearance. 

• The room in my setting has turned out to be a non-issue. In fact, it helped the plot move along. I swept the walls and the shelves clean and made that fact a bit of a conundrum about my antagonist. What is he hiding? Wish I could do that with my heroine's messy house (or my own for that matter!). 
• To solve the problems with my minor characters, I set up a spread sheet. I labeled the rows with things like: Her BF, His dad, Her cook, His BF, Pastor, Chief, Dean, etc. When I found a character in the book, I noted his name in my spread sheet and where I introduced him. That way, if I moved an introduction, (as happens when a scene is eliminated or totally rewritten) I could be aware that I don't mention the character before saying who he is. My spreadsheet has helped so much, though it isn't entirely complete. 

I hope my struggle through my revisions will help you with your projects.

So what project are you tackling right now? In what ways are you dealing with the details? 

Blessings!