File cards were the solution. Most places sell the smaller standard size cards in a pack of 50 or 100. The lines on them are quite narrow and honestly my hand writing isn't that small so I wouldn't get much on them!
I knew there was a larger size available, and didn't want to resort to buying online when all I wanted was one pack; I checked every shop I knew had file cards.
Then I found them, in Rymans. The 5 x 8 inch size.
File cards... |
As they only had the white file card in the largest size I needed, I had to find another way to highlight what was physical description; characteristics and negative aspects of each character.
In the end I went with little coloured circles- coloured pens are useful and not just for editing on the printed page.
The other advantage was noticing the gaps in those three areas. My hero is doing fine, but my heroine needs some work. Her characteristics are acceptable at the moment, but physical description is a bit vague...
I do write character profiles before I start writing, but then as the characters develop and particular traits emerge I've not added them to the profiles, so the cards will fill in the gaps as I work through the second draft.
Now I have to decide are his eyes hazel green or green? And whichever one, what sort of green?
My lesson from this for the next time is add the details as I go...
Do you have a process to ensure consistency or do you put it right later on?