Just Thought I'd Share a Helpful Technique

[AsylumSeeker]

I wrote a Zombies - A Love Story after having played some zombie games. Never thought much would come of it. But it grew and grew.

Okay, so helpful tip is to maintain a separate file with character details. Don't know how much time I wasted going back through chapters to make sure I didn't turn a brunette into a blonde, etc. After 25 chapters of Zombies - A Love Story I am now working on Zombies 2 - A Love Story Ch. 03 and as I add characters I also update a file I call Zombie Details.

Saves time and effort. Just a thought.

 

[Handley_Page]

I wrote a Zombies - A Love Story after having played some zombie games. Never thought much would come of it. But it grew and grew.

Okay, so helpful tip is to maintain a separate file with character details. Don't know how much time I wasted going back through chapters to make sure I didn't turn a brunette into a blonde, etc. After 25 chapters of Zombies - A Love Story I am now working on Zombies 2 - A Love Story Ch. 03 and as I add characters I also update a file I call Zombie Details.

Saves time and effort. Just a thought.

I have a file called "CastList" which does nearly the same job.
It's a damned useful trick.

 

[Hubs_in_hose]

I have my story outline (general idea of where I want each chapter to go) and my character descriptions right with me when I am writing. I try to put each description and connection that my characters have so that I don't get twisted when referring back to a character that we haven't seen in a few chapters.

By keeping the descriptions/clothing/locations/emotions tracked it helps to ensure that I don't have different people doing/wearing the same thing.

 

[oggbashan]

But be careful!

Too much information in a file about your characters can:
- detract from time you should be using to write the story
- encourage you to put too much detail in the story, and
- get you writing about the characters rather than their interaction in the story.

 

[johneb87]

I have three files. One is a Word doc for my major characters that includes their basic info, muse image, and background. The second file is a document that lists all the minor characters and the third one lists all the cities.

 

[SandraMustard]

Since I have mostly written about real experiences in my life, I have a simple list of story names for my family and friends. I created it while writing my novel but it has some merit for submissions on Lit. One of my few divergent stories has a goof (used a similar name) but that is more a typo than confusion.

 

[oggbashan]

Since I have mostly written about real experiences in my life, I have a simple list of story names for my family and friends. I created it while writing my novel but it has some merit for submissions on Lit. One of my few divergent stories has a goof (used a similar name) but that is more a typo than confusion.

Sometimes I make mistakes with names. When I start writing a story I choose names but as the story develops that name might not be appropriate for the character. I use 'find and replace' but I have missed "name" followed by an apostrophe, leaving the character changing names during the story.

Because I am now aware that I have done that, I check names carefully.

 

[sr71plt]

I use 'find and replace' but I have missed "name" followed by an apostrophe, leaving the character changing names during the story.

Strange. In my systems it would have gone ahead and changed the name--it would change that combination of letters no matter where they appeared (meaning though that you wouldn't want to universally change something like "tin" to "ton" as you might be changing the spelling of all sorts of words you didn't want to change.)

 

[mythtrav16]

Strange. When I write a story, it's playing like a movie in my head and I just write what I see. I wouldn't forget the major details of a character's appearance any more than I'd forget what color an actresses' hair was mid-movie, or even what they looked like in movies I really like that I haven't seen for years. If fact, I often cast Hollywood actresses in my mental productions.

I just assumed that everyone wrote in more or less the same way.

 

[PennLady]

I just assumed that everyone wrote in more or less the same way.

Check out various threads and you'll find that everyone has their own approach to writing. None are more wrong or right, in my mind; it's what works for the writer. Some like to have notes, some don't. Some like outlines, some don't.

 

[SydneyBlake]

My mind sees my story as a movie, too.

I've always kept an outline of my characters, and I have pics I find on the web that I use for inspiration while writing. Now I'm experimenting with Scrivener, which pulls all these techniques into one program. I'll still not sure whether it's better than my old method.

 

[sr71plt]

For erotica, I try to get into a zone where I'm inside the action, not sitting in the audience and watching a movie. But, as PennLady, that's just me. Different techniques for different folks.

 

[DeeZire]

... I wouldn't forget the major details of a character's appearance any more than I'd forget what color an actresses' hair was mid-movie,...

How old are you? I used to have a good memory too.

 

[R. Richard]

Normally, I see the whole story and I don't use an outline or summary.
However, my Second Chance series has what's effectively an immortal for a protagonist. Not only do I keep a summary of characters and events, I have to relate the current characters and events to previous characters and events, as the cast of characters changes over time, due to the long time span of events.

 

[mythtrav16]

None are more wrong or right, in my mind; it's what works for the writer.

Of course. I didn't mean to imply otherwise. It's just funny the assumptions we make sometimes.

How old are you? I used to have a good memory too.

I take your point.

But the great thing about writing for sites like this is that you don't need a photographic memory, you just need to remember what bits go where during the horizontal lambada.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

I had a story where I was just trying to keep track of the character's relative ages. It wasn't a major plot point, but I just needed to picture them better. And many of them were close-knit members of a family, so I needed to have it on record somewhere.

That way, I remembered that Uncle Jack was the greek/Ojibwa brother of the main character's mom, and who's cousins belonged to whom, etc.

 

[oggbashan]

I had a story where I was just trying to keep track of the character's relative ages. It wasn't a major plot point, but I just needed to picture them better. And many of them were close-knit members of a family, so I needed to have it on record somewhere.

...

I had to draw a timeline for my story Earth To Earth to get the ages of the characters right and to fit with an incident in the Depression of the 1930s. I had written most of the stories before I found that one of the characters had been born when her mother was impossibily young, not just Lit young, but physically-impossible young...

When I gave her a reasonable age, the other characters' ages didn't fit.

 

[sr71plt]

I have to keep more notes on the historicals than on the contemporary ones.

 

[Brunne]

Sometimes I make mistakes with names. When I start writing a story I choose names but as the story develops that name might not be appropriate for the character. I use 'find and replace' but I have missed "name" followed by an apostrophe, leaving the character changing names during the story.

Because I am now aware that I have done that, I check names carefully.

I've had an issue with a name that can be spelled several different ways and I only noticed just before posting a story that I'd spelled the character's name wrong half the time! Thank goodness for find and replace...