This post will cover building and outlining organizations. By organization, I mean any distinct group that is assembled with a specific purpose. This could be a military unit, a branch of government, or a church. It could be as large as a nation, or as small as a clubhouse.

Any organization that will have a noticeable impact on the story in one way or another should appear on my list and receive at least some sort of prep work. How much prep work and to what level of detail will depend on what I need the organization to do.

Why build organizations?

Because organizations of various sizes have so much influence on our lives on so many levels. Think about how many organizations you interact with on a daily basis: law enforcement, insurance agencies, restaurants, etc. Even if the experience is smooth, you’ve still interacted with them.

Within a story, organizations can influence the choices of a character (antagonist, protagonist, or other) as they experience the narrative. They can restrict or assist characters. Some organizations may act as characters in and of themselves, if they’re central enough to the story.

Broadly speaking, there are three ways I expect an organization can influence the story.

Availability of resources

An organization has access to resources. By planning ahead, I know what those resources are and how the characters can access them. An army brigade has so many tanks and machine guns. A corporation has so much money and so many facilities. And so on.

When writing, I then have an idea of what the character who is part of this organization has access to. How many guns can they bring? How much money can they withdraw? It helps define things ahead of time, so a character doesn’t suddenly have access to resources beyond their means; or if they do, they’re going to draw attention.

Powers and Limitations

Characters who are part of organizations operate within the rules of that organization. The organization gives them certain powers, but also impresses upon them certain limitation. Think about law enforcement agencies. Officers of the agencies have powers and authorities while conducting their duties, but also work within the law and limitations of their culture. And different agencies will have different powers and restrictions.

For characters in the story, an organization can be the source of conflict, by restricting a character in one way or another. Having some idea of how these restrictions work, and the punishment for ignoring the restrictions, helps inform the decision-making process of that character.

Knowledge and Ethos

Organizations are not just about people and equipment, but also about knowledge. What does the organization know and what can it teach (or has it taught) the character? Deep secrets, professional knowledge, client information: organizations come with an array of bits that characters can know to come to learn.

Related is an organization’s ethos: the character and spirit of the organization. This ethos can influence the character and/or their interactions with the organization. A character from a military unit that prides itself on always completing the mission would react strongly to even the idea of failing. Another character from a secretive religious order would find spycraft to be second nature.

What to build?

Start with some basics. Names of the organization, a brief history. Some ideas of what its scope is and what its powers are. Much of this might seem pretty obvious, but I’ve found it helps to write it down.

Tables of organization

A table of organization is a great way to lay out how different parts of a group interact with each other. The one I’m most familiar with is the TOE (Table of Organization and Equipment) used in military histories to explain how sides of battles are organized, but the concept is the same for non-military or non-historical organizations. Boxes represent parts; lines represent relationships.

Tables are a great visual reference to explain organizational relationships without getting into paragraphs of explanation and exposition. They’re also helpful if I need to game out battle or campaign scenarios, as the units on the table can translate to units on the tabletop.

Lists of Resources

A list of the resources available (and I’m including knowledge and secrets in this list) can be a helpful bit to keep on hand. It could lead to a new story idea of fun conversation within a scene. Plus, I’ve found that having a list of the resources centralized in one location makes it easier to reference during writing.

Positions, Ranks and Characters

Organizations are filled with people, who have titles, responsibilities, and possibly a role within the narrative. Much of this may feel thematic, but it is important to get it right. It doesn’t make sense for a European-style organization to use Japanese titles, unless there’s a very good reason for it.

Once the organization charts are built, figuring out the titles, names and even biographies of important decision makers ahead of time will help with the flow of the story. I don’t need to necessarily prepare the name of every single character in the organization, but having them ready can be great when I’m writing the scenes.

Paying Attention to What I Need

At various points while building organizations, I need to take a step back and ensure I’m building what I need for the story. I could go through an entire military organization and label every officer and unit name, but does the story need that? Do I need to work out the titles for every officer in a church leadership, or not? I need to pay attention to what work I need to focus on.

In Practice: The General of the Pen

So, we’ve gone over why I build organizations, and what I try to build for an organization when I build them. Let’s move onto the final part and put it into practice for our test project, the General of the Pen.

I’m going to build four organizations for this project:

• The Campilesian church: the cultural glue that holds the local communities together.
• The Campilesian independence movement: the political force that is driving the rebellion.
• Alonso’s Army: the force that is being assembled in Valle de Cielo for the story.
• The Sur-Marais army: the force that will serve as the antagonist for the story.

Don’t worry. I’m only going to give myself three paragraphs per organization. The first paragraph I will give the expectations I have for the organization within the world. The second, I will give an overview of the organization I’ve built. Third, how it will appear in the story.

The Campilesian Church

The Campilesian Church is a religious organization that has influence across the borders and strata of Campilesian society. I need it to be a culturally unifying force for a people who do not have a political unifying force, while they built a governing body. But I don’t want it to necessarily step in and try to rule in its own right.

The organization I envision is hierarchical, but broad. Local priests report to a bishop of a region or an archbishop of a city, all of whom report to a cardinal. The various cardinals make up a ruling council that decide ecumenical and spiritual matters after vigorous debat.e

In the book, I expect the bishop to be a character who will appear several times (so I add him to the list). Local priests will appear to lead their parishioners into the new era; some may actually become military officers.

Story Idea: The more religious Campilesian’s are willing to accept religious leaders as military leaders; Gerhard, from a nation which practices more separation between spiritual and military, looks at this with distrust.

The Campilesian Independence Movement

The Campilesian Independence Movement is the driving force behind the story; they’re taking advantage of the opportunity to drive for independence. But it’s not a controlling body; it’s not even a particulalry organized body. It’s more a loose collection of social clubs, poliitcal socities and local parties that is stepping up.

This organization is building to nationhood, but has some ways to go. Right now, it’s a very provisional organization. It has a central directing body, and several developing government organs, but nothing is set in stone. Much of the authority of the movement is held in local and regional organizations, which are trusting in the central body to figure it out.

For the course of the story, the Independence Movement is a driving force, but will be largely absent from the narrative. They have called for raising regiments, given Alonso his position as a general, and are sending him what supplies and units they can. But if any agent of the government does show up, it won’t be a large player.

Alonso’s Army of the Valle de Cielo

The Army of Independent Campilesia is a growing army, made up of small regiments of social clubs and emergency volunteers who are assembling into the larger formations in response to the current crisis. It should represent a chaotic and uncontrolled expansion. It should also show off that each regiment assembled is an expression of local customs and heraldry.

The building block of the army is the regimente, a formation of various companies assembled under a command staff. Each regiment has a common uniform for themselves, but these are not standard across the army. Regiments bear the name of the city or region they are raised in. They are sent to regions to fight in, where they are assigned to generals as needed.

In the General of the Pen, there are a number of regiments that form or are sent into the valley, from the well-equipped and uniform looking San Martin Regiment to the hastily raised and rough looking Santa Angelica Regiment. They currently service in the valley, under General Alonso, who has divided his army into the western Corps of Observation, and two fighting brigades. These formations will form the basic army that the characters operate in during the events of the story. More units could come in later, when it’s most dramatic.

Aside: In the Independence Army, most soldiers and officers are dedicated to their regimente, which are expressions of local support. They know each other. General officers and staff work for the central government, which is not the same thing. There is still a lot of distrust going around.

The Sur-Marais Army

This is a large, established army. Their unit histories go back centuries. They have standard uniforms, weapons and training. And they have an entire nation’s industry and economy behind them. The force that comes into the story is small enough to be defeated because they have confidence in their arms to win the day.

I build two charts for this army. One is a chart of the high organization, the top generals and their offices, to explain the inner workings of the army and how it responds to a crisis. The second is a TOE of a single army corps, a formation large enough to operate on its own.

During the course of the novel, the army corps will advance into the valley and engage the independence movement. Using the TOE, I can track the units and numbers of men involved, and track casualties as events unfold.

Conclusion

This was a quick overview of how I go about preparing organizations for a story. For major projects, I have whole spreadsheets counting down unit sizes to the man, and tables of organization to look back on and reference. It’s not meant to be perfect; it’s meant to answer the big questions before I start writing, so I stay consistent.

Next post I will do a quick overview of creating setting specific systems for Magic, Mythology and Science. Expect a lot of math, and a lot of ‘the characters don’t know how it works, but this is what they think.’

Until next time, cheers!

Michael