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Keeping Track of Plots and Characters
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Mary Anne
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Aug 25, 2014 02:40PM
As a read through these wonderful books, I continually face one challenge -- keeping track of the characters and plots. Do any of you have techniques and strategies to make this easier?
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the outlandish companion is a good start. It only covers the first four books. I think its time that Diana had someone update to MOBY, and would love to get that into my hands. The book also talks about the "types" of characters. I was re-reading some chapters last night in fact, and enjoyed her discussion about how she did things. About some characters "Developing themselves" and others being harder nuts to crack in terms of developments. Altogether a great, but different read.
Thanks for the suggestion, Madeleine. It will be in my next Amazon order!!
Before I start reading any book I put a very large Post-It inside the front cover. Whenever a character is introduced I record the name and page number of the intro on the Post-It. I try to keep them alphabetical for quick finding. If the author mentions someone they haven't like 50 pages later I usually don't remember who it is so this method is extremely helpful to me.
Judy wrote: "Before I start reading any book I put a very large Post-It inside the front cover. Whenever a character is introduced I record the name and page number of the intro on the Post-It. I try to keep ..."The post-it idea is good. Also with some books I have kept a Cast of Characters in a spiral notebook. Most of my books are now read on the Kindle, and many of these have a feature called X-ray. Say you come to someone you can't remember, click on X-ray in the menu bar and each character mentioned on that page has a listing. Click on the one you are interested in and it gives you all the references to him/her which are in the book. You can go and read some of these and then using the back button return to where you were. It is an outstanding feature.
I like the post-it idea and am glad to hear I am not the only one who doesn't remember characters from previous pages. I do have a Kindle, but I'm not big on reading books on it. I've tried, but I still love the smell of paper and ink...
Maryanne wrote: "I like the post-it idea and am glad to hear I am not the only one who doesn't remember characters from previous pages. I do have a Kindle, but I'm not big on reading books on it. I've tried, but I ..."When you need for every book to be Large Print, you won't miss the smell of paper and ink so much. I have adored having Kindles since the first one appeared.
Nope, gotta have a book in my hand whether hard cover, soft cover or paperback. I do enough on the computer every day without doing my pleasure reading on it. I think it would be nice for travel but I'll probably still lug a book around. I started on the first book of the Outlander series on the way to Hawaii and I was actually a little sad to land!!
Judy wrote: "Before I start reading any book I put a very large Post-It inside the front cover. Whenever a character is introduced I record the name and page number of the intro on the Post-It. I try to keep ..."Judy wrote: "Before I start reading any book I put a very large Post-It inside the front cover. Whenever a character is introduced I record the name and page number of the intro on the Post-It. I try to keep ..."
Mary wrote: "Judy wrote: "Before I start reading any book I put a very large Post-It inside the front cover. Whenever a character is introduced I record the name and page number of the intro on the Post-It. I..."
I like your idea...since I'm ready to start book 7 kind of late, but just in time for book 7
At the moment I am listeting to the audiobooks and I am actually taking notes...
I"m treating myself to the companion for my birthday, upon Madeleine's suggestion. But in hardcover, since it seems like something you want to cross-reference constantly. Does anyone know if this is a graduate course anywhere as yet?
One thing that helped me was the "Outlander Family Tree":http://content.randomhouse.com/assets...that was published by Random House as part of the book series. It lists all of the family members and a lot of the books characters.
Brizo wrote: "One thing that helped me was the "Outlander Family Tree":http://content.randomhouse.com/assets...that was published by Random House as part of..."
Awesome share. thank u!
For those of you with Kindles, the price on Outlandish Companion dropped to $11.99 from $16+ today. I do not know if the new price is temporary or permanent, but I bought it.
Don't mind me, I'm just going to swoon over the idea of Outlander as a course of study.While we're at it, I wish someone could teach Diana's research methods.
Research is something that just happens, in my world. Somebody sends you something, or gives you a book. Or mentions something that sets you off on a tangent. A scene from a film, a poem, a drawing, can all spark the next step, for me. And this would make a dandy graduate course. Methodology, mythology, morality.
It is fascinating having Diana tell about how she writes, where her characters come from, how they develop, etc. This is all in Outlandish Companion and she also went into some of it on her now defunct podcast several years ago.
The Companion is insider everything, from research, to development and beyond. I've found it to be something I go back to check on , even though for me, it's all spoilerville, since I haven't read beyond Outlander. Still, it's good to know who will be around in the future/past.
Aren't there a lot of pictures in the companion? Does that work well on the kindle?
Sunflower wrote: "Aren't there a lot of pictures in the companion? Does that work well on the kindle?"The pictures are black and white illustrations for the most part and are ok on the Kindle. I also downloaded the book into my Kindle app on the iPad and when the picture is more complex, I can look at it on there.
The pictures that accompany the text are mood inducing, and help us keep in the timeframe. Botanical prints, etc. from the era and helpful in decorating as well as working their herbal magic on us, the readers. The should be fine on a kindle.
