Keeping track of your novel's characters

Writing a novel series is a balancing act

One of the most important and time consuming parts of writing a series of books based on one character can be keeping track of the continuity. I discovered that to my cost when writing my Detective In A Coma series of books featuring Detective Inspector Duncan Waddell and his comatose sidekick DC Stevie Campbell. 

Unfortunately I hadn't prepared myself for making sure I maintained contiuity in my characters, which often led to me having to trudge through hundreds of pages of text to make sure everything I'd written was consistent. 

I've just finished writing book 4 Vigilante City and with the weird way that publishing works book 2 in the series Cannibal City will be published soon.
Keeping track of the characters and what's happened to then in previous books is tricky when you don't have a system in place.  

That's why I have my trusty notebook - an old fashioned one you write in - with pages devoted to every one of my main characters and plenty of space left to add in new details.

I'm using a notebook because I can carry it around with me, but I also back up the details online using file storage service Dropbox, my email and I have it in a Word document. 

Hey, as writers we can never back up too much, can we?

What should be in your notebook

1. Name and brief outline of the character.
Include full name of your characters including middle names and nicknames if any, age, general appearance.

2. Personality - What are they like as a person?
What do they like, what interests them, how do they treat others, what makes them laugh, have they any phobias/hang ups, are they dour or do that have a good sense of humour etc...

3. Personal details - are they married, divorced or single, do they have kids (if so what ages are they?), do they cheat on their partner, do they have any health problems etc...

4. Major events they've gone through. This would usually be things that happened to them in your books or that you've referenced in your books. 
For example, my sidekick detective DI Waddell has been able to have two-way conversations with his best pal and colleague Stevie Campbell, but nobody else can hear him. I had to establish in my notes when Stevie first spoke to him.

It might seem like you're spending too much time doing this, but trust me, it will turn out to be a major timesaver later on when you're not having to trawl through hundreds of pages of text just to find out what colour of hair a character has.

Tip - Have a photo of each character - some writers find it easier if they have a photograph of how their characters look pasted into a notebook, or pinned to a noticeboard on the wall or on their computer desktop. 

It can be a picture of anyone including of a celebrity or a generic photo cut out of a magazine.

If you find yourself losing your character you can look at it and it might put you back on track.

Was my house built on an ancient burial site?

I'm starting to think the flat I moved to over three years ago must have been built on the site an ancient burial ground like on those horror movies. Since we moved for family reasons, we've had nothing but a litany of bad luck.

Week one, I fell down the outside stairs and my foot looked like it'd been used as a baseball bat by the New York Yankees.

Just as that'd healed I ended up with a ligament injury that had me hobbling around like Long John Silver minus the parrot.

Okay, those things don't bode well but it happens. Surely our luck would change?

Next came the flasher 

Within a week of moving in the police were at our door asking if we'd seen a flasher. Apparently he'd exposed himself to some poor woman.

More horrendous luck followed.

Injured at Tesco

My OH was injured sitting on a bench outside Tesco and he needed stitches. Then he was the victim of an attempted mugging by two yobs who punched him on the face and spat on him. Incredibly it happened on a busy road and people would have seen it, but nobody even bothered to so much toot their horn. Welcome to the world of couldn't care less.

Even the driving is like something out of a horror movie.

Most of the drivers on the road next to us that's as busy as any motorway, drive like Wacky Races. They race each other, don't know what a zebra crossing is (Hoi, you're not meant to see people walking across one and try and mow them down) and stoping at red lights seem to be optional.

The end result - some near death experiences like the time the driver thought he'd save himself a bit of time by driving straight across the road island from one side of the road to another just as we were trying to cross.

My mobile phone was pickpocketed/stolen during the World Cup. Thankfully I managed to lock the thief out but not before he took photos of himself at a sectarian match. Not that it helped when I went to the police.

Happy New Year Death 

I celebrated the New Year by coming within a whisper of getting hit by a 4 by 4 that was doing about 50mph as it deliberately drove onto the pavement I was recklessly walking on with my dog because pavements are just another type of road to speed along. Again the police were as useful as a chocolate t-shirt. Welcome to 2019.

Time for an exorcism?

What should I do now? I'm thinking of having an exorcism performed to drive away the demons that clearly reside within our house and nearby. Yep, our neighbour is one of the nightmare ones who should be in a documentary.

Or maybe I should try Feng Shui.

At the moment I'm willing to give anything a try.

Who should I dedicate my book to?

Writing a book is tough work, so why shouldn't you get the finishing touches right? Finishing touches like the dedication?

I'm sure I'm not the only one whose mind goes blank when it comes to dedications, so I'm writing this post as much for myself as to help anyone else.

So, who do you dedicate your book to?
Ask yourself these questions -

Who inspired you to write?

A teacher at school?

A friend?

Your parents?

A relative?

Did someone go beyond the call of duty to help you write the book?

Do you have children and they babysat for you?

Did someone encourage you to write when you were about to give up?

For instance, Stephen King threw his manuscript for Carrie in the trash. His wife rescued it.

Dean R Koontz dedicated one of his books to his dog who had passed away.

I dedicated Hell To Pay to my mum Rosemary and Aunt Isobel, as well as two of my best friends who sadly died young. They are the two strongest women I know and Nancy Kerr is a strong female protagonist and the star of the the Die Hard for Girls series of books.

Tip: I dedicated the book to them, but could just have easily have named my main character after them. Instead I named Nancy Kerr after two of my best friends at school.

Remember, dedicating your book to someone makes a wonderful gift. Don't waste the opportunity your hard work's brought about by not using it.

Note - the Die Hard for Girls books were relaunched as the Crime Files by Limitless Publishing in April and May 2015.