When I wrote The Name and the Key, I sort of winged the timeline. The only concrete information I had was that by the time the story picks up in Mariner, it’s February…and that’s when Andresh reunites with Lily and her family after years in his home country of Sindalia.

The Step and the Walk chronicles a period in Andresh’s life while he is in Sindalia–when he attended university, all the way up until he arrives in Mariner. Because Andresh’s novel is written entirely through journal entries, I needed to find a way to keep track of the dates and how often Andresh wrote.

I decided to go very literal with the timing and use a historical calendar. The Name and the Key takes place in 1820 (but I just looked and I don’t mention that in the novel anywhere! AHHH!), but Andresh’s story begins August 1819, when school starts, and goes into the first week of February 1820. He turns nineteen years old during this period.

Anyway, I tried to find the historical calendar website I used and it’s been removed! So here’s a backup I found: https://www.arc.id.au/Calendar.html I don’t know if it’s formatted to let you print out the calendars like my original source let me do, though.

Anyway, I printed out the calendars, stapled the pages together, and proceeded to note whenever Andresh wrote in his journal. I would log the main concept he wrote about, too (although I didn’t do this until halfway through August) so I could keep track of what was happening.

I did notice that he journaled more thoroughly while he was at school, and when he leaves, his entries decrease due to depression or illness or other things keeping him from writing. I hope there’s not an imbalance in the story, though, since the journal entries are a little top heavy.

Anyway, I thought I’d share this with you in case you think that using a calendar to write might help you with keeping track of your story and its continuity. I hope if you use the link above, that it helps you out in some way!