Do you guys have a world Glossary for your stories?

[aqua03]

So I was chatting with a friend today to brainstorm ideas and plot points for Drachenseele and they said that I should have a glossary of names, characters, and terms so it's easier to analyze and discuss possibly plot points with my work.

Do you guys have a glossary for your work to refer to? If so, how do you make it and format it? And how is it different from a regular guidebook for your comic's world? (Because I already have that for Drachenseele that I'm working on.)

Thanks again for the help.

[Prisim]

I don't call mine a Glossary, it's a cheatsheet to me, but it has the same basic principle as what you're describing. I could never remember my own character names or looks until I started keeping one. Mine is private just for me so I don't do anything fancy formatting wise, it's literally something like this:

Characters:
Siobhan- race Draygon. Black hair, white streaks, fangs, bronze skin, gray scales on her back. Uses changeling potion to conceal her looks and hide her identity as Draygon. Ice magic.

Wren - Human. Son of Lord, from Crestborne. Dirt blonde hair....etc etc etc

Places:
Lowlands Main setting of book 1. Magic is enslaved...

You probably get the point LOL Some books are more detailed than others depending on how far into it I've gotten. So whenever I can't remember what a character looked like, or how I spelled a place name, or anything like that then I'll refer to my cheatsheet. And I've started to create basic maps for my world to help me keep directions straight. They're 100% not to scale by any stretch, just more so I know stuff like the Lowlands are split from the highlands by a coast to coast mountain range, or that Firnlan is to the east of Crestborne etc.

[rajillustration]

Like Prisim mine is just a thing at the beginning for either me or someone else I may have asked to proofread the story. I have a character section where I list the characters and a quick summary of who they are and who they're related to. I have a language section where I translate any words in another language. I also have a section that goes over terms, so if I have a group called "the seven chosen" or "the lost age" or particular places, then I'll explain what that is in the terms section. I also like to put a quick bullet point outline of the whole story, but it's very rough--like maybe a full page--and usually I'll end up with a different story than that initial bullet point outline.

Occasionally I'll do an outline that covers the span of even things that happened hundreds of years before the events of my story--especially if I know I'm going to be jumping back and forth. It helps if my timeline is all over the place to keep it linear in at least one spot.

[darthmongoose]

I do, because there are some things that are hard to just remember in my head at all times, like:

• When did the third age end, and what age were all the characters at different points in history? Especially older characters like Sylvia, who was 28 at the end of the third age and is still going ten years after the prologue.
• What are the names of the cities in the alternate universe Romano-Celtic Britain where King Arthur was real, and which cities are prominent? ie. Adel is equivalent to Leeds, York is called Everac, the story takes place in Joysgard (fictional, but I imagine it's equivalent and not far from our world's Manchester) and Camelot is also a city somewhere further south.
• Each category of demon has both a number and a common name, based on size. Class 1s are imps, Class 2s are orcs, class 3s are ogres, class 4s are trolls.... etc. etc.
• How tall are all the characters (I even have a height comparison chart for this one), ie. Adult Rekki is 5'3" / 160cm
• Other important bits about characters, like Rekki and Urien are both left-handed (Urien leaning toward ambidexterity), Sarin is lactose intolerant etc.

[lisacoy455]

I do keep a word file with all the words- esp descriptive and emotive words i have used- moreover- because i have a slight learning disability- i also use writing tools likes grammarly and Bartleby for corrections and better ways of improving my writing for the comics- narratively i usually use story spine (which i love!)

[Aims]

I have one of those. Basacly I just created a series to post character sheets and lore since some feedbackers said that it was annoying to have the story interrupted by such things.

[Legendofgenii]

Haha! You should see my desk. I have so many pieces of paper and post-it notes everywhere - in no order whatsoever. I even keep a note pad on my bedside table as most of my ideas like to come at 3am.

I'm thinking about making a Lore book as a new series. One of my MCs is a scholar who is constantly making notes and discoveries in a journal - so I was thinking of making it into his journal with extra details about the world, races, creatures mythology and the God Stones etc. Basically things that are mentioned in my main comic, but I spam my pages with enough speech bubbles as it is. haha! Then anyone who is genuinely interested can take a look.

[DaphnePanda]

Not sure I would call mine a glossary. It's more of a textbook at this point I have a giant document with sections for lore, history, a bestiary, two different pantheons... and then I went the extra mile and made up a language, so I have a completely separate document that covers grammar rules, the written script, and a dictionary. Word's built in header and table of contents functions are life savers for me

For discussing specific plot points, I pick out the most important things and put them in a sectioned, bulleted list. If something comes up that's not on the list, I hand over the additional information.

I will never hand out the full document though. It's constantly changing. Ain't nobody got the time to read that thing multiple times.

[Iris-Grimoire]

I have one for things you can't explain just glancing at the plot. What's Sundersickness (backstory illness), the names of relevant towns and locations, everyon's ages at certain events in the backstory, magical terms, the religious expressions that don't have a real world equivalent, etc.

[MeltingCORE]

I do have one for myself but within the story I try to make it easy for readers to remember what terms mean in the context of the world. (I'm also not sure if people would want to read through a glossary for mine atm? I did have a good response to the little lore cards I made when I was on Twitter though... Hm...)

[Jen-Jen]

I don't, but I've always preferred them when reading longer novels, especially when I've stopped reading for a period of time. Please don't feel self-conscious about it.

[Panqiuyan]

i use a thesaurus a lot...........

[joannekwan]

I've got one for myself to keep things in order on the backend. It goes as detailed as I personally need them. For my current story, my entered terms are mostly there so I can keep their spelling straight.

As for lore, I usually only have it woven within the manuscript. I'm pretty good at remembering where so if I need to reference it I can just type in a phrase I remember writing around that time and it takes me right to it. For anything not blatantly explained in the ms, then I might write about it in my reference docs shared with the glossary.

[jcmraz]

Sorta but I haven't made it public. I put little bits out on my patreon and occasionally on reddit or my facebook group

[NickRowler]

I don't have a glossary but I feel like it should be formatted in a way that is not just a wall of text

Like maybe something similar to this, where there is images to go along with the words. But have the descriptions be more complex.

You could also play around with the layout to make it more visual interesting. Like setting it up like a history book.

[ScarletDemon]

I do full outlines instead of glossaries: where I make character profiles, descriptions about locations, the abilities of the characters, the formats of things like magic or the various works of high fantasy worlds like how the orders of knights are laid out or the various sizes and shapes of dragons. The more detailed, the easier it is to keep the story going. usually also includes a few points to the plot, but not a full plot summary.

[Legendofgenii]

I love the history book layout.