Then I sat down and did the grunt work. I have *all* the characters listed with biographical information, some more, some less (family histories, siblings, cousins, political affiliations, pedigree, course load, relationships, grudges, hobbies, pets, etc), I have class schedules, I know exactly which students are in which classes when (for the entire seventh year, for example), the quidditch teams, the Prefects, and I know when the things that matter need to happen to all of them. Sort of like actors having to hit their marks.
What's flexible are the scenes in between. Sometimes the actions are set, often because of something I need later or for symmetry, and it just wasn't clear if I'd need to tell that part of the story from the outset. If people seem to be enjoying the characters, then I'm more likely to go there, or if I see in the comments that people aren't getting someone's viewpoint, then they tend to get more attention as well. (People grossly underestimate the difference comments make; as far as that goes, this is a very interactive process.) Sometimes something needs to happen, and I ask the characters who wants to do it; somebody invariably volunteers if I make it worth their while. Sometimes I need a character to be in a certain frame of mind, so if I decide to give more detail, I then need to explain how they'll get there instead of just saying s/he's happy or angry. There's flexibility there, and I let the readers and characters make a lot of those decisions. (I just do the typing. 😉) Once in a while a character insists that there's a scene missing, and I have to stop and give it a think. And there are some characters who were more popular than anticipated so they'll get bigger storylines. Crooks has an extra scene down the line, the Baron got a bigger storyline, Daphne, Millie and Harper get more of their stories told... Of those, I think currently only Crooks and Daphne have scenes that weren't in the original background though. (Daphne, the little muppet, insisted she had to do a few things that were vaguely inconvenient; I told her if she *really* wanted to go there, there were conditions, but she was easy enough and readily agreed, so we're good. 😉)
And as a reader you don't necessarily need the all histories, say. (Some of them go back as much as a century and a half. (Portraits, yo.)) They help me keep the characters and their motivations distinct, so they were useful for me, but it wasn't clear at the outset how much of that I'd share, but as people seemed to be having fun with it, well... 707 K and counting.
Tags, yeah, slowly but surely I've been adding the rooms, the spells used, the characters, world building elements, recurring themes or items... Given the occasional time jumps, where the story tells what *will* happen, I was thinking I could try to reference those in the tags, but that's proven trickier to work out and the Previouslies seem to be doing the trick, so I may leave it at that. I think the things that might come in handy for some people are tags like Severus and Hermione's 'fireside chats', or the 'Crooks and Severus' buddy movie. Possibly a 'Sevmione' for any scenes of theirs... I suspect 'awww' would be nice, if I could figure out where it belongs... Background, Drama!, Action! I just haven't identified what people might wish to single out. (Invariably they surprise me on that score anyway.) 😊
no subject
What's flexible are the scenes in between. Sometimes the actions are set, often because of something I need later or for symmetry, and it just wasn't clear if I'd need to tell that part of the story from the outset. If people seem to be enjoying the characters, then I'm more likely to go there, or if I see in the comments that people aren't getting someone's viewpoint, then they tend to get more attention as well. (People grossly underestimate the difference comments make; as far as that goes, this is a very interactive process.) Sometimes something needs to happen, and I ask the characters who wants to do it; somebody invariably volunteers if I make it worth their while. Sometimes I need a character to be in a certain frame of mind, so if I decide to give more detail, I then need to explain how they'll get there instead of just saying s/he's happy or angry. There's flexibility there, and I let the readers and characters make a lot of those decisions. (I just do the typing. 😉) Once in a while a character insists that there's a scene missing, and I have to stop and give it a think. And there are some characters who were more popular than anticipated so they'll get bigger storylines. Crooks has an extra scene down the line, the Baron got a bigger storyline, Daphne, Millie and Harper get more of their stories told... Of those, I think currently only Crooks and Daphne have scenes that weren't in the original background though. (Daphne, the little muppet, insisted she had to do a few things that were vaguely inconvenient; I told her if she *really* wanted to go there, there were conditions, but she was easy enough and readily agreed, so we're good. 😉)
And as a reader you don't necessarily need the all histories, say. (Some of them go back as much as a century and a half. (Portraits, yo.)) They help me keep the characters and their motivations distinct, so they were useful for me, but it wasn't clear at the outset how much of that I'd share, but as people seemed to be having fun with it, well... 707 K and counting.
Tags, yeah, slowly but surely I've been adding the rooms, the spells used, the characters, world building elements, recurring themes or items... Given the occasional time jumps, where the story tells what *will* happen, I was thinking I could try to reference those in the tags, but that's proven trickier to work out and the Previouslies seem to be doing the trick, so I may leave it at that. I think the things that might come in handy for some people are tags like Severus and Hermione's 'fireside chats', or the 'Crooks and Severus' buddy movie. Possibly a 'Sevmione' for any scenes of theirs... I suspect 'awww' would be nice, if I could figure out where it belongs... Background, Drama!, Action! I just haven't identified what people might wish to single out. (Invariably they surprise me on that score anyway.) 😊