Keeping track of characters...

[Lord Rae]

I'm finding that the farther I progress in my story and the more characters I introduce whether they be minor or major I'm running into the issue of keeping them all straight. Maybe its because I haven't fleshed out many of them in my head...whereas with main characters I have lots of events and backstory all planned.

But I was wondering how you all keep track of your characters. Do you have a character list with descriptions physical and otherwise? Or what do you do?

[Matrix Refugee (formerly Morraeon)]

I generally jot down a list of characters as they show up, so I can get things straight when I'm revising later on, and in case they turn up in another story, as I'm working on a series of urban fantasy stories.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I'm finding that the farther I progress in my story and the more characters I introduce whether they be minor or major I'm running into the issue of keeping them all straight. Maybe its because I haven't fleshed out many of them in my head...whereas with main characters I have lots of events and backstory all planned.

But I was wondering how you all keep track of your characters. Do you have a character list with descriptions physical and otherwise? Or what do you do?

I note down the ones who show up as I go along; the ones I know will be there to begin with tend to be clear in my head already, so I note down the non-obvious things about them rather than the obvious ones.

There's a tendency, which for some reason I associate with fanfic writing, for people to do incredibly detailed character descriptions with all sorts of stuff about the characters and to think this is a useful writing tool.  And maybe it is for some people; to my mind, the process of finding that stuff out is part of how I write the story, and if I knew it all in advance the character would be dead and there'd be no story.

[LizW65]

Some time ago I found a bunch of incredibly detailed "character sheets" in PDF format where you could fill in the blanks with each character's traits (can't recall where -- they might have been something put out by the NaNoWriMo folks.)  I didn't find them terribly useful, however, and most of what I filled in had radically changed by the end of the story.  Just making a list and noting each character's function might be helpful if you're having a hard time keeping everyone straight, though.

[CrazyGerbilLady]

I fill out a "character sheet" on each character going in, but it fleshes out considerably as I go along.  I do always want to have at least what they look like, and tags and traits identified (see Jim's blog if you don't know what those are).

[meg_evonne]

Let's see, I was always a fly by the seat of the pants type of writer, then my memory started to fail.  At the same time that happened a writing partner started putting my half-assed system to shame with his....

Gave in, and guess what?  Life is so much easier.  Let's see, I use excell sheets...  My last work has over nine excel sheets.  All of which help a ton, and more importantly save time...

1. character sheets, I use one excel for all characters, but it's huge length and width
2. scene location sheet
3. chapter word count (as I work off chapter numbers which I revise & store forever--so I need a total word count)
4. using some latin, so have a sheet for those
5. general listing of all research sites used on line for the manuscript for easy relocation.
6. workshop was told that i needed to remember what characters have about them and why--so I made a separate 'thing or prop' listing, which i don't use often enough.
7. I'm using italics in a 3rd POV piece and there is a lot of decisions being made about what works and what doesn't so I creatd this to back and find them in the various chapter i save.
8.  It's a tightly timed, DaVinci code thing so i had to create a solid time line...
9.  Then I use an old myth and it sort of needed it's own little sheet for time line, goals, more detailed character notes and motivations.

So, yep, I am not a firm believer in these things.  I'll never go back!

[Tech L. Me]

This is a bit detailed for a minor character but I've found that this website has a good list of things you should know about your characters that could provide you with a place to start from.

http://www.miniworld.com/adnd/100ThingsAboutUrPCBackGround.html

[meg_evonne]

cool, thanks Tech

[thausgt]

There's a tendency, which for some reason I associate with fanfic writing, for people to do incredibly detailed character descriptions with all sorts of stuff about the characters and to think this is a useful writing tool.  And maybe it is for some people; to my mind, the process of finding that stuff out is part of how I write the story, and if I knew it all in advance the character would be dead and there'd be no story.

I hear that this happens with actors who really want to get into a part; Valerie "Connie Murphy" Cruz supposedly did it in "Things That Go Bump". No spoilers: go see the episode to figure out why, but suffice it to say that it's a VERY good reason.

Having said that, IMHO, there's nothing wrong with having lots of character details handy. It becomes wrong when the story switches from a narrative to an FBI file.

There's also very little wrong with making stuff up as you go along, neurovore, but if you can do that while keeping all of the plot threads untangled in your head (especially writing something on the order of, say, Dune), then all I can say is: Your mentat training has served you well.

Thanks for the spreadsheet idea, meg_evonne! I'll have to see about incorporating it on my next writing project...

[frankiebgoode]

I have two systems going and I'm not really sure which works best.

The first one is that I have a notebook full of character descriptions and my subplots with the minor characters are detailed in short segments after I've written a brief backstory. I also scribble down other important things in the last few pages of the notebook. It isn't terribly organized though, which can be a problem when I'm trying to remember one of the very minor characters for a mention or something.

The second system I have is a lot like meg_evonne's, but most of the direct character information is in a Word document, short descriptions and personality traits, the rest is floating in my head. And then I use Excel to run a calendar where I detail important things that happen on the days where I have actually written stuff, or where things happen off stage and are going to get a mention, or I just have to know that they happened. It's a little complicated but at least I don't have to go back and read through everything to find stuff again.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

There's also very little wrong with making stuff up as you go along, neurovore, but if you can do that while keeping all of the plot threads untangled in your head (especially writing something on the order of, say, Dune), then all I can say is: Your mentat training has served you well.

Dude, I'm a professional designer of Very Complex Databases; keeping all the threads in something the size of Dune untangled in my head is relaxing compared to my day job.

[THETA]

I plan my stories way ahead.  I think planning ahead on who goes where, what their purpose is, and their personalities is very important.

[The Dread Pharaoh Roberts]

I fill out a "character sheet" on each character going in, but it fleshes out considerably as I go along.  I do always want to have at least what they look like, and tags and traits identified (see Jim's blog if you don't know what those are).

I'm glad one of us does!

[Lisa™]

I'm glad one of us does!

Dude.  She's organized.  *Awe*

[THETA]

Admittedly i always start with a stereotype.  In classic literature they would have been called archetypes and they still are, but i use real world character bastardization slang.  For example...

Matt- angry teen
Marie- emo
Lobo- nervous guy

My character grows as i figure out ways on how to purvey their personality while writing or how i stagger the other characters understanding or finding out why that character is the way they are.