Writing, Writing, Writing

[matopa]

Distracting myself from my dilemma. Thank you to those who've already responded and I'll respond individually shortly.

So yeah, distracting ... been writing. I am now almost done with Chapter Twelve of my book (no edits except minor things I catch when I go back to reread something) - that's 19,327 words (which isn't TOO much). I'm not even halfway

Comments

[starling27]

Don't worry about number of characters, the development of your story will naturally let you know if you need more of less. Characters are a tool for telling the story itself, so you will know who and what and how many you need :)

I tend to, like you, keep all my chapters in one document, but i've found that with long stories it's harder to go back for referencing. So for long stories i do it chapter by chapter to stop the endless scrolling syndrome lol. Additional to this i keep a character document, that lists all the characters used, who they are, relationship to the story and to other characters. And a short bio and description of what they look like. This is helpful to keep characters consistent and give you a firm idea of them as a 'person'. I also keep a timeline doc. To help me keep track of time in the story. And also a small doc. About environments used, to give me a clear picture of each setting used.

Lastly i use a brief outline of how i want to story to be set out, so i get the idea of what happens in each chapter, what settings and what characters. All these things help keep writers block at bay. :) hope that helps.

[matopa]

I've always been told that you shouldn't go back and read through the whole thing until it's all written. Me? I am constantly going back and reading it entirely, finding new things, new ways to write something ... so keeping it one document has made it easier for me...

I was just more curious how other folks did it.

Yeah, I agree on the characters comment; they do come around when I need them (:

I used to keep a 'character' sheet on my characters, but then I would lose them and that would just drive me nuts. Since I go back and read over it so often, the stuff kind of sticks now LOL.

This did help, THANK YOU!