You Need a Character Master List

You don’t want to be reaching for that redshirt’s name, 21,249 words in.

Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash

One of the major divisions between the two branches of writers are those who plan their stories out in advance — the plotters — and the pantsers, who go in gung-ho and start writing.

I’m not trying to sway anyone away from their beloved mode of choice. Far be it from me to suggest that having at least an idea of a plot going in might be helpful, or to remind folks that the outline isn’t set in stone, called down by Moses from the mountain.

I’m not gonna suggest that at all.

But just because you don’t want to do any planning beforehand doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to do some organizing while you’re writing the thing.

Imagine this situation: you’re in the middle of writing, got a great flow going, and you’re trying to remember the name of an unimportant character — say, your character’s English teacher, who you’ve referenced maybe once or twice before.

You remember that you’ve given them a name, but that was a month and 20,000 words ago. You can’t remember it for the life of you now. You start swearing and cursing your shithole of a memory for holding onto things like random Lady Gaga lyrics instead of this unimportant name of a tertiary…