How to create the past and future of a fictional family

I love a good family tree. More books should have them! They are a great way to convey information and help untangle different family relations that could stop the plot if you explained it in text.

It’s one of my favorite things about The Improvisers, but I found that making the tree was much more complicated than I thought it would be. I wanted to take a moment to share my process as I figured out what to include on the tree and give you a behind the scenes look.

Family Trees are storytelling and worldbuilding at the same time.

When I started working on The Improvisers I knew I wanted a family tree included in the book.

The various Rhodes relatives appeared in minor but important roles, and as I plotted future books, it’ll be good reference point for me as well as readers.

But I also wanted a family tree for other storytelling aspects. The jump from Conductors & Undertakers to Improvisers is 60 years and I wanted to give an impression of how much has changed and hint who might appear as supporting players in Velma’s story. The tree also showcased family dynamics in a glance so readers know Velma is the youngest grandchild, that Velma has a few much older cousins, and that twins are common in the family, and other smaller details.

On the worldbuilding side, the various dates are reference points for me to explore future stories. For example, if I ever get a chance to do more Hetty and Benjy stories, they’ll be before 1873 as I don’t plan to write stories with them as young parents. I also have a story that I’ve been mulling over with the eldest daughter in the family, and all I can say is that the date for her divorce is one element that anchors the story.

Early on I capped off the number of relatives I wanted to work with for the family tree.

Even back when I was writing The Conductors I knew that Hetty and Benjy would eventually have three children, and that they would have twins. But the generation following was in flux. I had Velma, I but I didn’t know how many siblings she should have, let alone how many cousins at first. As I worked on The Improvisers the cousins appeared naturally as the plot saw fit, and I settled on one sister for Velma, which meant I landed on nine for that generation. I felt it was a reasonable number since I expected to reference a few in the plot, and well quite frankly, multiples of 3 often appear in my writing!

Around the fourth draft, I took a stab at making the first tree. Before had been vague outlines that I reference, but now that I had a clearer idea of the Rhodes family, it was time for a more official tree.

Because Improvisers is set in 1931 the first step was math. I did some quick calculations to figure out when Velma would be born, and then figure out her relatives, making sure birth dates and marriages were somewhat reasonable.

When designing the tree I chose to make it vertical anticipating how it will appear in a book.

Like I said before I love a good family tree, but I didn’t like how in some books they were done horizontally so they spread across two pages. I didn’t find those easy to follow along in bring, and it was even worse in an eBook.

Vertical to me meant it staying on one page and can be rather concise especially as it expanded. When designing the elements, I made sure the various lines to spouses and children were distinctively places, and gave space around the three main branches to get a clustering effect.

One little fun thing I included in the design is the question marks that appear on the tree. This is deliberate as this tree is from Velma’s POV, and hints at her familiarity and knowledge about her relatives.

One final aspect I considered in the family tree, was the definition of family itself. In the book, I make references to family friends are considered aunts and uncles with no deference to blood relation. I thought of including those characters too, but that made too many characters that weren’t relevant in this book (or in the forthcoming Starseekers). So I chose to keep it to immediate family for Improvisers.

Planning for the future

The best thing about working on the family tree was that it allowed me to plan for other stories. The Starseekers is set in the 1960s and my work for the family tree in 1931 allowed me to know exactly what branch of the family the next main character would come from, and what relatives that may or may not be involved in her life. Starseekers will feature a few characters readers saw a little of – and of course include an updated tree!

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Updates

I had a blast earlier this month at One More Page chatting with readers about Improvisers and other fun topics. And as always it’s great chatting with Leslye Penelope who joined me for the event.

It’s a small indie, but One More Page is packed with charm and the booksellers there made me feel like I’ve been a longtime customer. If you’re ever in Arlington stop on by!