How to Manage information and details about all minor characters and things in your novel?

[anonymous_buttfart]

In my novel, there are a lot of characters aside from the protagonist and his family and friends. I mean LOTs AND LOTS...

I even named trivial characters so that it could be easy for me to write the scene, without referring to the character like that 'Blonde chic' or that 'one-eyed old fart', etc. Calling the characters in a scene became repetitive and also weird. hence I just end up naming these characters although, they don't have to play any actual role in the plot.
But sometimes when I need to reuse that same character, I tend to forget the name or misspell his name.

Yeah, I tried managing writing it down on a notepad, but later it became so hard to read, that one might mistake it for some encrypted code message.
So I end up deleting it.

So how do you properly organize such information while making it easy to refer to this information?
Not only the names of a minor character but also like places, the tavern, bookstore, magical weapons, villages, etc.
Any tips are appreciated.

[joannekwan]

I just make a little index or glossary section in a google doc that contains other pertinent info on my main story and characters that I'd like to keep track of, like their ages and basic character arcs.

[IndigoShirtProd]

I use google docs and a lot of folders to keep track of things like character background, locations, and other world building details. I know programs like Campfire and World Anvil exist that help keep track of things like that. if organization is something you struggle with, I recommend looking into to those.

My advice to you is to separate the characters into where they appear in the novel; it can be by chapter, scene or location. Giving them a name is a good start, but you can also give a brief description that goes along with the name so you never forget. You can also include the character's utility: Maybe they talk to a main character in one scene and are seen again later down the line.

Yea @joannekwan beat me to it . What I'm saying is make a glossary and include the things I mentioned previously.

[Freemints30]

The same way I handle and manage my room. Messily in a giant lump and I think I lost my retainer in there.

[nostalgicroxas]

Physical piece of paper notes, or notes in a file. Or in an excel sheet. Whichever way is easiest for you to organize. Some of my info is just in art - like "what color is this guy's eyes again? oh right, lemme just pull up this art of him off my dA".
It tends to look a lot like one of those generic character sheets.

Name || Age || Gender || Eye / Hair || dead/alive || Height
Personality: 3 words
Hobbies
Left or right handed
ect ect
short BG
longer BG
lineage if needed

[neardrive]

Hi, oh!

In my case, for any relevant character i have a document where i wrote its appearance, its personallity and a brief summary of its past. I.E:

Name: Jafren
Age: 34
Physical desc: He looks older than he is. Black hair with countless silver lines. He's not tall nor short. Usually wears comfortable clothes and a fancy hat.
Personality: Quite distracted, but very professional at his job. He's a bit too serious, but he always have a time for a good joke. He has a tick which is that when he's in a good mood, he usually touches his nose.
Past: He was born in Liaron. His parents, from a decadent noble familly, raised him as a noble, thinking they would gain the status they lost. Unfortunatelly, they both die in a plague and Jafren, with only 12, had to find a way to survive. Luckyly he found a man, Diorth, who teached him all he now, making him the best information dealer of Befassen.

---

That would do for a secondary character that i can use whenever i need to. As i spend some time (~10min) in creating him, now he's not only a name. He's an entity with personalyty and a story behind him, so it's easier, for me at least, to remmember him. I may forget some details, but that's why i wrote them

I hope that will help, not only you, but everyone who reads this

Tell me what do you think

PD: Thats a fictional character i just created for this example.

[BlunderingAlbatross]

I try to keep a running word doc with everything in but I keep forgetting to update it

[teacup_creations]

I personally use microsoft's onenote
It's helpful because I can separate it into sections and subsections so I can just put all my characters in separate sheets in the character section
As an artist I like it because I can also draw directly onto the sheets

[surenlicious]

I have a few notebooks and a word-wikipedia styled document in which I have detailed out lots of ideas, full character descriptions and plot lines to keep myself up to date. Definitely recommending the wikipedia-page style type of writing down, it helps a lot. XD

[WOSTR]

Notebooks
Notepad on devices
Character bios and very brief character bios
I like putting the info online with tags

Having the characters linked to one another, such as family, work colleagues, friends, opponents etc. - they'll generally linked to a main character and minor who wouldn't need to have anything to do with one another rarely seen crossing paths.
The character in the picture above is a sidekick of a deity and can only be seen by the paranormal leads, who are siblings and their underlings.

[elyss]

Campfire is good if you can spend a little money and wanna go absolutely nuts on details.

[rajillustration]

I write a glossary in the beginning of the story where I drop things like timelines, family relationships, names, and meanings of any alternate languages. By the time I'm done with the draft it'll all be wrong anyway because I change so much as I write, but just writing that glossary helps me to get down the outline at least.

[foxnflames]

I too have a notebook or encrypted scribbles. Before I started typing, I did research on the setting my story is inspired by and I took the type to doodle landscapes and everything. I needed something to look at so I won’t mess myself up. I also wrote out character names and brief descriptions. If I forget something I’ll either look at a previous chapter or my notebook (if I can read it lol). I’m doing sketches of my main characters so I can better visualize what they look like so I can better remember what they look like. And I also have it spinning in my head their personalities. Lot to keep up with