How to Corral Flibbertigibbet Characters
Those wild and crazy characters! You know… the Joans, Sallys, Madelines, Rodneys, and more (72+ at last count) that make stories pop.
They were tucked everywhere in manuscripts. I heard them laughing every time I needed them to do their thing in a new tale. I was spending way too much valuable writing time searching for them; their description; and their history.
My needs are simple (most of the time). I simply needed a fast and easy method to call up a character and their history at a moment’s notice.
It’s been a frustrating challenge since the beginning. Yes, there are a glut of cloud-based online offerings like Plottr and Reedsy. But their subscriptions are overkill for my paltry needs. I didn’t need an app to write the story. I just needed to grab a character that had appeared in a previous work.
What a relief when the simple solution pounced right in front of me! What was the lightbulb moment?
Build a simple character database (Index file on the computer) using a feature of my office program. Don’t let the idea scare you. It was fast and easy. And I’m a happy camper for the effort.
Because there is umpteen gazillion office programs out there today… I’ll share with you the outline of how I built the database in Microsoft Access. The names of the tables won’t change; only how you talk to your specific program will.
It’s all about three little tables and their relationships. Here’s the steps:
- Create three Tables. Label them: Characters; Books; Series
- Hook up the Relationships:
- 1 Book to many Characters
- 1 Series to many Books
- Create a Form to gather information on each character. Duplicate the character’s completed form to add them to another book. Gather as much information as you want but I have used only: Name; Description; Book Title; and Series
- Create a Query to automatically gather the characters starring in one book.
- Create a Report to produce a Cast of Characters from the query for each book. This report goes to the narrator so she can get acquainted with them before she starts the story. She’s never said ‘eeuw’ so I assume she loves it. I know I do for the next work-in-progress. Ahhhh…
It’s this simple database that assures continuity in characters – Sally isn’t 87 today and 77 tomorrow. Unless she got in the way of Witch Hazel’s spell that made her 10-years younger instantly.
Although a cat named Spaghettio may have done just that. The book is called ‘The Tangled Tails of Spaghettio’. And you can read it today for less than a dollar. Read on for the magic link to click.
Amidst the chaos of Rodney’s hilarious mishaps with his bionic arm and wheelchair, Sally finds herself entangled in a web of bizarre circumstances. With both mankin and cat unleashing havoc, our courageous 87-year-old protagonist must rise to the challenge.
Can she uncover the truth behind this demented cat and unravel the insanity gripping her world? Will she be able to save Rodney from the clutches of his malfunctioning arm?
Hold on tight as you dive into this uproarious adventure filled with unexpected twists and turns. Join Sally as she untangles the mysterious cat’s origins and confronts the mysteries that lurk beyond her very own doorstep.
Prepare yourself for a rollercoaster of laughter, mystery, and heartwarming moments in this charming tale that will keep you eagerly turning the pages.
But wait!
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Alexie Linn, the Author, and Homespun Rebel 