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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/41850
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/41850
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I admit to finding this an insurmountable task.

My novel has dozens of characters. My first problem wasn't keeping track of them, but creating them.

**Modern Day:**

My 20th century characters were easy. I tweaked ages, genders, names, and family configuration a few times, but they were mostly set in a few days and fully set after a week or two.

**Ancient Egypt:**

Impossible! Seriously, months. Months of not writing a bleeping thing because I couldn't move forward without knowing my family units and having it all together. I couldn't just make it all up because this is based on a Bible story. There are multiple existing characters and I had to research every last one of them (much harder than you think as the source material is not as clear as one might like). Then fill in the gaps (which is mostly the women and girls).

I didn't post for help with this process because I knew the answer: _Just make yourself do it!!_ So I did it.

**_And. It's. Done._**

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# Tools for creating and tracking

**Word:** I started off in Microsoft Word. I'm still writing my chapters and doing all my notes on different topics there. But for lists of characters and their attributes, nope.

**Excel:** I love a good spreadsheet. All of my family charts are in Excel and it's still the tool I use for them. But it wasn't helping me move forward with creating my new set of characters and dividing them up into living units.

**Family Tree Maker:** My other hobby is genealogy. One thing I'm especially good at is making family trees (with well-cited sources of course). I figured my best bet was to go through the Torah (starting with Exodus), some other Biblical books, and commentary, and boom, I'd at least have all the named people, then I could add in missing wives and kids. Except...no. It is not straight-forward and there is no existing genealogy that is uncontroversial (don't say Flavius Josephus because he made choices most commentators think are not right). After creating entries (and facts and relationships) for 242 people, I gave up.

**Index Cards:** My husband's a writer who is finally starting to get published. Index cards work for him (complex soap opera comic series) and he pushed me for weeks to give it a try. I tried it. I've now got 2 dozen mostly filled out index cards buried under the clutter of my desk. It would be great for keeping track of individual existing characters who have scenes with various other characters, but did not work at all for me to create characters within large families.

**Paper:** Paper tears. Paper gets lost. Paper becomes kitty beds. But wait, I have a wall.

I started off with my modern characters and their lineage (parents, aunts and uncles, and grandparents). Two pages for the genealogy, 1 more page for the grandparents, another page for the grandchildren. Printed. Taped to the wall. I reference this all the time! As in 2-12 times per chapter. Much more helpful than having to open the right Excel file/sheet and find the info.

I have 43 modern characters, many of whom you never see or even hear about; they're for my own use. My Egyptian characters were a lot more complex. I've got 65 of them and every single one is present in the story. I won't use most of the names or show most of the people, but _I_ needed to know who they were.

This was the part that was like pulling teeth. First getting the known characters, then adding more, with names that worked, with characteristics that worked. But done.

Color-coded. Printed. On the wall. 10 pages.

After that, diving them up by household (who is in which hut) was pretty easy. As was deciding which of the 18 time-traveling children was staying with them. That last bit went on the wall today. 3 pages.

**Wall Logistics:**

Scotch tape to attach pages to each other when needed. I had originally used scotch tape to attach to the wall, but it was hard to move pages and I was worried about damaging the paint. I used blue painter's tape but hated the look. Now I use the painter's tape rolled up and on the back of the pages.

It all looks like this:[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ViLns.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ViLns.png)

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# My Question:

My question is _not_ "what is the best method/tool for creating and tracking characters?" That is a very individual thing. What works well for one person will be awful for another. And what worked for me for this novel may not work for my next one. Besides, it's an opinion-based list, which isn't something we do at Writing.SE.

Instead, my question is:

## What is the best process for figuring out the methods and tools you need to create characters and keep track of them while you're writing?

Original score: 3