I have entirely too much free time on my hands this morning.
So here’s what happened: Last night, I decided I wanted to redo my character sheets for all my main/secondary characters. Why? Because things had changed, and because they were largely handwritten and sloppy, and because I was starting to lose track of the connections between characters and their age differences.
That’s how it started, anyway. I got a couple done last night and a few more this morning, but as I was putting my sheets into neatly-organized page protectors in my writing binder, I thought, “Hmm…It would really help to have a visual reference for some of the more major players.” Yeah. So the aesthetic boards/sheets became a thing.
I gotta admit, it looks real spiffy. I can flip through the pages, see which sheets go with which characters at a glance, and if I forget a birth date or something I can simply flip back and double check, and there’s plenty of room on each sheet to write in changes/additions/etc if I don’t want to reprint the thing.
I won’t do the aesthetic boards/sheets for every character–that’s just too time-consuming. But I’m going to try to at least make up a detailed character sheet to flesh out the more prominent characters. I feel like a nutjob with all the connections I have to keep track of. It’s a little like this:
I might end up having to buy a big ol’ corkboard and some string and some thumb tacks and do just that. Lol The further along I get with the series, the more I have to remember.
Hopefully, these character sheets and their info will bleed into my story and provide more depth. They’ve certainly already given me new ideas. Like, three or four books later ideas. Possibly a spinoff series? Hmm…
Time has caught up with me though, so I must go get ready for the day job. Then, when I get home, more character sheets. Or something.