Character Relationship Problems
Lately, I’ve been looking for a tool to help me with relationships between my characters. I’ve written series before, but I’ve never had characters tied together so much. In particular, it’s a group of friends, that’s growing even as I type, that’s giving me some difficulty keeping track of everything. It’s not tracking the characters that are giving me trouble. It’s their states, emotional and physical, and what’s happening in their life. That can change a lot throughout a book much less the series. So I began searching. Unsuccessfully. I haven’t found anything that really fits with what I want to to do.
Just as an example, I have one character who’s pregnant and deliriously happy and another one who’s depressed, frustrated, and tense, but searching for answers on why. I have another holding down and running a business and trying to avoid overwork while balancing a new relationship, but is deeply in love and beyond happy. And even more characters, plus more incoming, with different things going on in their lives.
I’m looking for a tool.
I’ve heard Scrivener can do something like that, but I’m not interested in switching writing programs to something I’d have to learn to use and that might or might not do what I need it to.
Their are tons of character profiles that list facts about one character. And that’s great, but I have that already for the characters. What I need is something where I can see what’s going on currently in this group of friends, preferably at a glance, all on the same page. I’ve never had to track to this level on the characters.
I honestly haven’t seen anything that would fit. I’m thinking of making a spreadsheet and I’d like to keep it simple instead of having to go back to read every time I start a new book in this series and see what they’re all doing.
I need more than a mind map, but less than profile and history for each. The search continues, but I’m starting on the spreadsheet. If I find something that works for me, I can always switch out later.
For writers, is there something you use to keep track of character relationships with each other? Do you do it on paper, such as a printed series bible, or on the computer?
