How do you keep track of all your characters? I'm writing something based in a small village that follows a few perspectives, but the side characters are fellow villagers and each main character has family members that also live in the village. I've scribbled a rough mind map type of thing but it's super messy. How do you keep track of different characters, their relationships to each other, points where their arcs crossover etc?
This will sound awful, but for me most of it is in my head. But I do use Scrivener for my projects, and if I think up something new or build up characters, I always write it down on my character sheet in the project folder (probably writing it down is why I remember it so well.) Organization for large projects can make a whole lot of difference. I have a folder for -Major characters -Side Characters (arranged by who they work for or where they are located) -Organizations/Entities (for my series, this is corporations and major countries, as well as hacker groups etc) -Important Locations -Plot Threads/Progression -Maps -Schematics etc etc If it makes you feel better, Salvia, even then it still gets messy. I try to make sure twice a year I try and clean it up if I find the time. You don't need Scrivener or any other writing software to do it, either. Just making windows folders and sub-folders to make your own project file system works just as well. But if you're referring to the more story-side aspect of keeping track of those arcs, then what I do is have a specific file with brief notes in it of future plot points for specific characters. Since I already wrote out a basic overall story for my characters, that takes place over multiple books, I already roughly know the twists and turns that will happen in their stories. So in that specific file I write each plot point down for each character and where it will occur in which book. Then I see if I can't naturally engineer or tweak the other stories/characters/plot points that need to take place at the same time when arcs need to cross over. However you do it, it will only start cleaning up the more time passes and you fiddle and refine it and maybe even as late as writing it or finishing it. Sometimes events change when you write them out because the story takes you places you didn't expect or due to something revealed in the writing that you didn't think of beforehand. The advantage is that looking ahead and thinking about how to get your characters from point A to point B enables you to turn them over in your head for a while and feel comfy with them, making sure it feels natural. But at the end of the day, large projects or multiple PoV books that need arcs crossing over is a naturally messy process. There's no simple way to make it clean and easy. Creativity is a messy business!
Keeping track of characters isn't difficult if there are only two. After that, difficulty increases exponentially with number of characters added. I think each writer should figure out what works best for them. Some writers can write entire novels with little preparation or few written files, but those are the exception and, usually, very experienced writers. Timelines with character worksheets work best for me. Like Steve Rivers, I remember more details after I've written them down. I've never gotten the hang of Scrivener, though.
Two words: Character bible(s). Depending on the character, I either allocate a whole notebook or just a section in one. The first few pages are basic information and details, and as I start creating history for the character I further separate the notebook (or pages) into sections that will encompass major time periods such as childhood, time in the military, time in prison..etc With cross-over events, I find it good to write the event from the perspective of each character before combining the two. I know it's weird, but I get a better feel for how they react in the setting. If you have a large scene with a boatload of people, try corralling them into groups. For example who dies, who cries, who reacts..and so on. it may help organize things.
@Nesrin Are you my doppelganger? These are things I do, but not in as orderly of a way as it sounds like you do. I just write up ideas very freeform, sometimes I'm trying to write a scene, sometime just getting to know characters and how they interact.
Oh my gosh! I was actually introduced to the idea by one of my favorite artists on Instagram who has created her own characters. In my own bible, I use the Socratic method with my characters. When they do something is ask "why' and I keep going until I have a good chunk of material to work with. I am anything but orderly. I have random papers sticking in random spots or half-assed sketches of random things. It is a hot mess. But then again so is my brain..hehe.
I've heard of that method but haven't tried it, I might need to do that. I do dig Socrates, partly from a love of Classical Greek philosophy, but also because of his daemon, which apparently was an inner figure (something in the psyche) that would answer him only when he was wrong about something. I suspect it was what Carl Jung would later dub the Self, the archetype of wholeness, which constellates only at the end of the Individuation process (process of reaching good mental health). Certain great people throughout history apparently managed to constellate theirs. Me too.
And to make up for being so off topic on this thread, I do to some extent plan out characters. Let me see if I can find the big post I made about that. But to a large extent I also let them form and grow as I write. Some take on life and work really well early on, some not till later, and then I need to go back and re-write some of their parts from earlier. Yeah, here it is: **Constructing Characters**
