: Re: organising complex networks I've decided to experiment with mystery novels and went for the type I most like: Miss Marple kind of tale. I set the story in a small town (about 2000 people)

@Connie138

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For the genre you are focusing on, 300 characters are too much! That said, you can have a network of diminishing priorities. For example. MC-> Related to 10 fairly important characters(suspects). These 10 can further meet many people, and you needn't provide backstory for each. Just remember the connections you establish, so you don't violate them later on.

Now coming to your question, excel can be a really great tool, if you organise it properly. Maintain tags for each character in a column. later for reference just use filters to see which characters are related that way.

"The lord of the rings" and "A song of ice and fire" both are high fantasy, but the number of characters in much, much more in ASOIAF. If you really want to write with 300+ characters go ahead, all rules can be broken, as long as it doesn't pain the reader to read your book.

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