My character database is huge. And a mess. I’m trying to keep track of how old everyone is in any particular story so that I don’t make a huge mistake and call someone a teenager when they’re supposed to be in their thirties, but this effort requires coordination of character birthdays, event dates, and who is connected to whom.
It’s a bit overwhelming. I’m currently making a character tree in Photoshop, just to get everyone’s affiliations down in a visual way. So far, I have 62 characters on the map. Around 15 of those never even show up anywhere, and another 10 only have bit parts.
My main concern is keeping track of character’s ages in relation to each other and events. I’m awful at math, and I’m terrified of getting anyone’s age off by even a day. Silly, I know, but true.
It’s just that I want something that will keep everything in order even while I’m switching everything around.
I started looking into Timeline software with calendar options. Bee Docs looks good except that it’s for Macs. They recommend SmartDraw for Windows, though they don’t market it to writers like Bee Docs does. (I do like that you can make images of your info just by asking the program to.)
The thing is, those programs aren’t precisely for writers, though writers can use them. Programs that are for writers seem to be all about strict boxes you put your text in or offering active “word counters” (or even offering a new word processor — which I wouldn’t trust as far as a random executable file in my email) instead of allowing the user to choose their own options. Frankly, I just care about keeping all my ideas straight so I don’t make mistakes. Organizing. That’s what I need.
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Dr. Elliott once said in the midst of his English lit lecture:
“If you ever write a book and want to wrench your reader’s heartstrings, create a family and then tear it apart.”
I guess the best description of me in high school could be pulled from the INFJ personality profile:
“INFJs have a rich, vivid inner life, which they may be reluctant to share with those around them. […] [T]hey are guarded in expressing their own feelings, especially to new people, and so tend to establish close relationships slowly. INFJs tend to be easily hurt, though they may not reveal this except to their closest companions.”
I’ve always been very reserved — sometimes perceived as standoffish or uncaring — due to extreme emotional vulnerability. The people who most often recognized me behind my reserve (before I ever said a word to them) tended to be other introverts. The best (though not the only) example would be my friend Dee. She approached me softly and unexpectedly in gym freshman year and I felt an instinctive understanding with her. I saw some of my own shyness in her, but she’d reached out in her own quiet way and made it easy for me to feel safe. I believe she knew how to get past my reserve simply because she knew what it was like to be afraid of opening up.
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In a Bible study a year or so ago, we went around the room and said the top three big things we wanted that we couldn’t get right away.
My list went like this:
- Second Cat
- House
- World of Warcraft Phoenix Mount
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Crazy, stupid, offensive people sell a lot more newspaper headlines than sensible, rational people do.
Thus, the crazies often get 98% of the publicity for any particular group. Think about Muslims and what they have to deal with when the terrorist sects are all some people know about their religion. Or consider how Christians only get publicized by nutjob hate groups anymore.
The crazies are not usually the community leaders of a group. They just stand out of the crowd more. There are other crazies who listen to them, sure, but every time a crazy says something stupid, the sane part of their community has to live it down.
Thus, those of us who don’t want to murder anyone really don’t appreciate when the crazies crawl out of their holes to make headlines.
They aren’t our spokesmen.
They’re nutjobs.
Just so you know.
