I tweak the layout pretty often. When I first posted, I had all the family stuff on the third sheet. Since then, I've decided it makes more sense to have the family headings on sheet one, with the characters. Currently, the main entries for each character I track are all entered in alphabetical order on sheet one, with all their individual headings. To use Daniel Jackson as an example, under his name I have all the headings I described above, e.g. "Daniel leaves Earth," and at the end of Daniel's section is "Daniel's family", where I have all entries pertaining to Daniel's parents, Daniel's children, Daniel's foster families, etc. Then on to the next character alphabetically.
After all the characters, on the same sheet, which is what I meant by "below the main entries," I now have all the "real family" headings, grouped by biological relationship--real father, real mother, etc. These tend to be crossovers, and it made sense to just put those in alphabetical order by the name of the real father or whatever. So "Chris Larabee is Xander's father" is separated from "Ezra Standish is Xander's father" by all the entries for Daniel Jackson, Eliot Stabler, and Evan Lorne being someone's real father. On sheet three, currently the crossover page, where the BtVS/Mag7 ATF crossovers are listed together, the family relationship is mentioned in the notes for a particular story. Since I've read only a handful of ATF stories, I'm not tracking those characters individually on sheet one, except in the "real family" section when they pop up in crossovers.
This does mean some duplication, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. "Daniel is Blair's father" entries can be found both under the "Daniel's children" heading and under the "real father" heading.
I started my spreadsheet after my interest moved from BtVS to Stargate, but I've found myself adding in other fandoms due to crossovers. That's partly why I gave up my original Word document of story summaries for a spreadsheet--I can just start new sheets if I start reading heavily in another fandom.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Organizing and tracking
Date: 2010-10-21 09:01 am (UTC)After all the characters, on the same sheet, which is what I meant by "below the main entries," I now have all the "real family" headings, grouped by biological relationship--real father, real mother, etc. These tend to be crossovers, and it made sense to just put those in alphabetical order by the name of the real father or whatever. So "Chris Larabee is Xander's father" is separated from "Ezra Standish is Xander's father" by all the entries for Daniel Jackson, Eliot Stabler, and Evan Lorne being someone's real father. On sheet three, currently the crossover page, where the BtVS/Mag7 ATF crossovers are listed together, the family relationship is mentioned in the notes for a particular story. Since I've read only a handful of ATF stories, I'm not tracking those characters individually on sheet one, except in the "real family" section when they pop up in crossovers.
This does mean some duplication, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. "Daniel is Blair's father" entries can be found both under the "Daniel's children" heading and under the "real father" heading.
I started my spreadsheet after my interest moved from BtVS to Stargate, but I've found myself adding in other fandoms due to crossovers. That's partly why I gave up my original Word document of story summaries for a spreadsheet--I can just start new sheets if I start reading heavily in another fandom.