Karen Mann | Using a Spreadsheet to Keep Track of Your Characters

When I was writing the first book in my paranormal romance series, THE SAVED MAN, it became quickly apparent that I needed a convenient way to keep track of my characters and other information. A spreadsheet program with multiple worksheets did the trick. I use Excel but there are other similar programs.

The premise behind THE SAVED MAN series is that four men find themselves immortal in the first century and live through the next two centuries searching for the reincarnated souls of their lovers from the first century (yes, they find them from time to time and place to place).

As I began describing the characters in my manuscript, I made note of their eye color, height, hair color and hair style, scars, and other distinguishing characteristics—anything I wrote about their looks—in a spreadsheet that I am able to refer to if I become confused about which character has the Roman nose and which has the flat nose. Character names went across the top in the columns and traits went down the side in the rows.

My list of characteristics includes any information that I write about them or need to remember about them. Besides physical characteristics, I have rows for their vices and virtues, their favorite weapons, their distinguishing personality traits, favorite sayings, parents’ and siblings’ names, and more.

Other worksheets in the spreadsheet keep track of the ages of the characters (at a glance I know how old any character is in any particular year), contain lists of possible character names from different time periods, and include a list of time and location of plot points. Other sheets have notes or full paragraphs of research—information I think may help me in the future.

Yet another worksheet is a running list of anything I need to check out or to research. I even use a worksheet like a journal to keep track of ideas I have for the other books in the series.

Having developed the idea of the spreadsheet for THE SAVED MAN, I have used it with subsequent books and have found it saves time because I don’t have to search through my manuscript or books or papers for details that have slipped my memory.

I title each worksheet along the bottom, so I can easily find the worksheet with the information I need. When I write, I open the spreadsheet on my second monitor. That way it’s easily accessed, and I can refer to it or keep it up to date as I add characters or incidents.

I know other writers who use spreadsheets. One fellow uses a spreadsheet to outline his novels. Another to keep track of strategic scenes. Another to keep notes about clothing, furnishings, and food. Another for a timeline with the action of the novel. It’s a convenient, cheap, portable, and easy tool. I hope it’s useful for you with your writing!

Giveaway

How would you keep track of your notes? Leave a comment below to be entered to win a copy of THE WOMAN OF LA MANCHA.

About Karen Mann

Karen Mann is the author of THE WOMAN OF LA MANCHA and THE SAVED MAN. She is the co-founder and Administrative Director of the low-residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program at Spalding University and managing editor of The Louisville Review, a national literary magazine since 1976. Having lived in Indiana most of her life, she now lives in San Jose, California. See more about her books on her website.

About The Woman of La Mancha

The Woman of La Mancha, a companion book to Don Quixote, tells the woman’s story of Don Quixote by recounting the story of the girl he called Dulcinea, the woman he loved from afar.

It’s 1583. An eleven-year-old girl wakes in the back of a cart. She has lost her memory and is taken in by a kindly farm family in La Mancha. She adopts the name Aldonza. She doesn’t speak for quite some time. Once she speaks, there is a family member who is jealous of her and causes a good deal of trouble, even causing her to be forced to leave La Mancha in tragic circumstances. Having to create a new life in a new location and still unaware of her birth family, she adopts the name Dulcinea and moves in the circles of nobility. While seeking her identity, she becomes the consort of wealthy men, finds reason to disguise herself as a man, and learns herbal healing to help others.

There is a parallel story of a young man, Don Christopher, a knight of King Philip and the betrothed of the girl, who sets off on with a young squire, Sancho, to find the girl. Christopher’s adventures take them across Spain and force him to grow up. Does he continue the quest to find his betrothed or marry another and break the contract with the king?

Both young people have many experiences and grow up before the readers’ eyes. Floating in and out of each other’s paths as they travel around Spain, will they eventually find each other and be together?