My book is fantasy and it is about wolves, so I naturally have alot of characters. My problem is that I have four and soon to be five packs. And each has an Alpha male/female, Beta male/female, and the Omegas.... and then the pups so alot of confusion goes on. I seem to get confused as to who belongs where. Should I write their names and seperate sheets of paper with a pack's land at the top and write their names below each? Should I hang it on a corkboard for easy view?A family tree perhaps? What do you suggest?
Definitely! Draw whatever you have to. Take notes. Doodle. Anything at all that helps you organize it definitely warranted. It'll make your life so much easier when you have to reference something. Heaven forbid you send your manuscript to a publisher and the first thing they notice is pack inconsistencies. When you're dealing with a broad range of characters, any and all information you can surmise will be helpful. I love the idea of a family tree. It doesn't necessarily have to be on a cork board but any way that is easily accessible and understood is perfect.
Absolutely not. No. That would be disastrous. Dear sweet Jesus, you have no idea how fortunate it is that you had the presence-of-mind to seek the permission of strangers on the internet to organize your own story. My hands are shaking: that's how close a call this was.
Yes. Do what you need to do. If you are an electronic kinda guy you can also work with separate word files or excel. Just a little suggestion of course.
I use onenote. My characters have their own page with reference to whom they know, related to, where they live, or have been to, which stories their in. I have a sub folder of the towns they live, a sub folder for animals encountered, I have a page for possible scenes. (Ie pictures I liked), I even have a few stories started in onenote, but it isn't as good as word for novels. When you have alot of characters, you have to organize. Even more so if you have packs, you don't want to put the wrong one in the wrong pack. onenote: you have multiple notebooks, each one has files you can make, each file can have endless pages, each subpage can have endless pages. It helped me organize. If you have Microsoft office you have onenote. Disclaimor: This is not a paid advertisement, I recieve no compensation for writing this and results may very. if you are confused for longer then four hours, you probably won't remember to call a Dr.
Sorting them out may help, depending on the kind of person you are. If you have photographic memory or something similar, then you might not need to organize all the characters, but perhaps it might help you anyways just for easy reference. A lot of the bigger epic tales (be they classic or modern) have a crapload of characters, and oftentimes the author (or publishers) put a list or chart or family tree or something similar of the characters in the front or back of the book for the readers' convenience, so it may help you here too.
