I am working on the re-write of The Vacillating Vigilante. Re-writing is always a challenge, and I’ve heard some writers express a dislike of re-writing. But for me, it’s a chance to see my novel in its entirety, to make sure that all the threads are woven into the appropriate fabric, and to see how well the story flows.

Some writers will do their re-writing as they move through the writing process. They will worry every sentence, paragraph, even every word as they are writing the first draft.  I can’t do that. I have to get through the novel first, carefully following my outline, and checking my character files to ensure continuity. When I get through writing, I can be sure the story holds together — the outline ensures that. But I don’t always know if the texture of the story is what I want.

For me, the texture of the story is how consistently the whole story feels, from beginning to end. Imagine a cloth dinner place mat. If you run your finger over it, you can feel the texture of the cloth. It’s usually consistent wherever you run it. A story should be the same way. There shouldn’t be rough spots, uneven spots, areas where the story feels different from other areas.

In my Hot Dog Detective stories, I try to create an even texture by weaving together several key threads. First, there should be a definable mystery that the reader cannot immediately solve. The solution should emerge throughout the story from clues or interactions between MacFarland and characters in the story. Second, the story should have periodic flashes of humor, irony, and comic relief, usually built around MacFarland’s interactions with Rufus or the Cooper family. And third, there should be a slight tension between MacFarland and Pierson as they move closer to each other.

These three threads make up the fabric of every story. I try to weave them so that the “feel” of these threads is consistent throughout the book and consistent from book to book.

Unfortunately, it is only when I am in the re-write stage that I can actually verify that the fabric of my story has been properly woven. As I go through scene after scene, I see the story as the reader sees it, and only then can I determine whether I’ve been successful in achieving my writing goal – to create a mystery that has character and is balanced by humor.

And which also doesn’t have spelling errors, bad grammar, and inadvertent errors in construct.

I discovered, as I was reviewing plot scenes in my mind and preparing to start writing, that I need to do more to develop my secondary characters. Then I realized that my goal was a lot more complicated than I first assumed. First of all, how do I even determine who is a secondary character?

Managing characters is a major task when you write a series of novels that cover more than two or three books and span several years of plot time. I spend much of my writing time working on keeping track of my characters. Simply writing them into a story isn’t enough. I need to be able to keep track of them. More importantly, I need to understand who they really are.

The main tool I use to manage characters is Scrivener. Early in my writing career I used to use note cards – 5×8 for characters, 3.5 for plot events. But over time, I have converted everything to Scrivener. Scrivener allows me to create an alpha-sorted document, which contains all the critical information associated with that character.

In my Scrivener file for the Hot Dog Detective series,  I have several folders with character files in them (each character in my stories gets his/her own file page).

There is major folder called Characters (a default folder in Scrivener) that has all the characters in the series. A smaller folder has the main characters of the series. This  includes MacFarland, Pierson, Rufus, and most of the individuals who have frequent contact with those three characters.

Then there are a series of folders for each novel I write that has the characters unique to that specific story. Eventually these will be merged into the main Character folder, but I usually keep the book folders active for a while in case I have to refer back to an earlier novel.

Finally there are a collection of folders for each of the trilogy stories. I keep the characters that are unique to each trilogy in each of those folders.

The information on each character file is essentially the same, though the amount of information recorded varies depending on how important the character is to the story.

• Character name
• Letters to identify the story in which the character appears
• A picture of the character (usually only for important characters that I describe in any detail)
• Background information about the character (spouse, children, parents, date of birth, date married, etc.)
• Short description of the character’s role in the story
• In some cases, a table that contains a timeline of the character’s life
• Scene descriptions in which the character appears in the story
• Sometimes pictures of the characters home, vehicle, or other props associated with the character – usually these are weapons the character might have used

Here is an example of a very minor character’s file:

Benson, Stu
CC
The man who “bought” Loreena
Rapes her, but when she fights back, he kills her
CC53 – Chamberlain says he was arrested.

The file for a major character can be several hundreds of words long.

The issue I am currently facing is whether I want to include more detailed descriptions of the motivations and psychology of certain characters. Yes, I already do this for my main characters. But do I want to do it for secondary characters?

So this is the question I propose: Just how much information about a character should a writer have? And what other tools do writers use to help define the content and limits of this information?