Hey Authors. I hope you guys are doing well. I just wanted to ask you guys about the different ways you guys manage your character.
I mean I am a writer myself but I strugle with managing characters when the novel is so long. Like over 400k words or even 1M. So I just want to know if there is a special way you guys manage them. The ways to remember what their stats are and which characters have relation to a certain character.
Also is there a software out there that can help you with this?
Authors! How do you manage characters in a long novel?
sakakoi In writing, you keep mentioning their names, powers etc, so people would remember as they read. Keep using the character names helps readers to remember the characters, and give them some distinct expression/character, ugly like a pig, very funny etc so readers also associate the character with the personality.
Outside, I just keep a notebook/digital or hardcopy to write down my list of character's names, personality and powers. A little of background so I can look back on them whenever I need to. (I got a Character list which I do as I write and add new characters as I go/writing) A simple table is enough.
Hi there!
So, what I do for a long book is I first and foremost use Scrivener. You can keep all your chapters, notes, etc in the file as well as organize into folders or drop downs. It's extremely useful for longer books. Now, for your original question...
I have 2 things I do. I have a list of all my character names, with their ages, appearance, and what chapter they're introduced/important notes. All in list format, in one folder.
If the character is important enough, I'll then create a new document with character information - but I categorize it by the order they are on the list so it's easy to find the character notes.