Keeping track of details invented for a work of fiction is never simple, often requiring writing bibles and continuity editors. But when two people are working on the same book simultaneously, then you're not only dealing with the details you've made up, you also need to work around a slew of fictional details that your co-author sprouted up on their own.
How can detail-organization techniques be adapted for collaboration, where they need to be shared constantly? How can an author keep abreast of a bunch of invented details their co-author thinks up? And when two co-authors have made up minor details which clash with each other, how can one resolve the conflict without knowing where and how the other used the detail?
Answer
My own habit is to use either Dropbox or Google docs to store what I refer to as "lore files." Each file contains all current details for a particular category: cities, characters, items, species. When making a minor change, the files are changed directly. If it is a major change or addition, it is added to a discussion file, to be added later. Before referencing something in your writing, simply check the lore file for that item. While this requires a bit of work keeping everything up to date, I find that the work translates directly into making the end result as congruous as possible. Additionally, it can help to record in the lore files the locations of references to the entry in your writing. This way when a change is made to the lore, it is easy to find chapters and pages that may be affected by the changes. Again, a lot of "not writing work," but in personal experience, it helps immensely.
As a slight aside, these lore files can also be helpful if you feel the need to include an index or release a sort of encyclopedia to your book. :)
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