Tracking

One of the issues with books like those in my series The Drop is that there are a lot of characters. Each book starts with twelve players, plus at least another half-dozen behind the scenes. How do I expect readers to keep track of them? How do I do it when I’m writing the book? Two questions, two answers. Let’s start with you, dear reader. When I wrote the first season of The Drop, I headed each section with the name of the corresponding player or character. I also tried to tie back the first several paragraphs to their previous appearance. That was all well and good, but not as good as it could be. With a cast that big, it was still easy to forget who was who. Because I’m a sadistic madman, I eliminated a couple of players from the game early, meaning the reader only had to care about eight or nine people trying to survive on the unexplored planet Alpha. Still too many, though. I realized when the book was ready to publish and as I formatted it that there was an easy solution: characters came from all over the world, so why not just add (in parentheses) their country of origin to their name at the top of each appearance? As well as their location, whether it be on Alpha or back on Earth. That worked well and allowed readers to have a better sense of the character by identifying them with a country. As for me, how did I track them all, as well as their storylines? I kept a document that listed all the chapters, the number of days (Day 1, Day 13, etc.) into the contest, and a couple of brief sentences summarizing the chapter. Not rocket science, is it? Simple things, though, that helped both of us maintain our sanity.