Trial prep: Keep your facts straight + stay organized

In a trial, it is extremely important to keep your facts straight: Names, titles, numbers, ages.

In a trial this complex — eight victims, four suspects, dozens of police officers and hundreds of witnesses that is 6-plus years in the making — it is easy to confuse names and ages and dates.

Trust me: You do not want confuse the names of the lawyers. Also, there are three instances where people have the same first names [including one defendant (Angela Wagner) and the special prosecutor (Angela Canepa).]

When you are writing quickly or tweeting it is SUPER easy to confuse names. Double/triple check everything.

Here are a few tips to keep all of that information straight:

• Create a Google drive or a safe place on your laptop to quickly access files with key information. Create a naming convention for your files so you can quickly search for them (WagnerIV.Trial)

• Create a list of names and titles of the judge and lawyers (triple check all your spellings). Include the defendant's name AND date of birth — ages change and in long trials, the defendants age may change. (WagnerIV.Trial.Keyplayers)

• Create a list of victims. Include a paragraph with their names, so you can easily cut and paste them in your story. (WagnerIV.Trial.Victims)

• Create a list of background paragraphs that you can cut and paste and tweak quickly. There's often a lot of needed background in continuing coverage, necessary to include to reminder readers of information. (WagnerIV.Trial.nutgraphs)

• Create a by-the-numbers document: How many jurors, how many pieces of evidence, how many witnesses, how many shots were fired, etc. You don't have to publish all of this; but this a good doc to fact yourself. (WagnerIV.Trial.numbers)

• Create a list of charges and link back to the indictment. (WagnerIV.Trial.Charges)

• Create a timeline. Start at the beginning and order key developments from the date of the crime, day of arrests, other key developments in the case in a timeline, so you can fact-check. NOTE: This is my personal favorite. I keep timelines for most ongoing stories/coverage. (WagnerIV.Trial.Timeline)

Here is an example of the timeline I use. I have a much longer one as well. I will also have a trial only timeline. Trust me: In a six- to eight-week trial, you will forget key information and creating all planning ahead now will save you much time later.