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Just to clarify. At this stage I wasn't planning a glossary that is to be published in the book. Instead, I am building a working glossary that will help me as a reference piece as I craft the trilogy. It will become my main resource to pile in all that information I'm throwing at the story as I go but will surely forget once I come to write subsequent volumes. I attended a panel on this in the U.S. and although I am not a planner, nor a keeper of notes traditionally, I listened to what writers such as Robin Hobb had to say about the use of these working glossaries and began to understand how incredibly helpful they can be to a writer of large tales....particularly someone like me who doesn't plan and thus has nothing to track back over or to help with jogging my memory (the manuscript of book one is rarely enough). Anyway, just thought I'd mention it. F

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Are you sure that you wouldn't put your glossary in your finished edit though Fiona? I am sure that if it helps you to keep track of who and what is happening in your tales, do you think it would also assist your readers to keep track?

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HAIL the fantasy writer!

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Yes, but they would be two different sorts of glossaries. In the book, if I did one, it would be a list of who is who and what is where so to speak. The glossary I originally mentioned that writers suggest are worthy during the early drafting process contains items like what colour eyes someone might have or units of money....the sort of tiny fact that you can forget when you're midway through an enormous trilogy. Makes editing much easier at the end. So I'm giving it a whirl - anything to make the editing process more expedient.

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Would have love to have heard Robin Hobb speak of the writing craft. Do you form a glossary A-Z or just throw things higgledy piggledy into a notebook?

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Either type of glossary is great - the one you plan to develop for personal use is a great memory and development tool and the one in the book is a great reference for readers who like to see things like geneology, birthplaces etc ...

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I have to say that I find 'glossaries' to be invaluable. A place to record character names, traits etc or a place to scrawl down a random plot thought or something you think might be important later on. I find that having a place to write such things down means that they don't then get lost as my mind skips ahead to other things!

I, for one, am a supporter of the 'glossary'!

J

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Hi, Anon...I won't be doing it A-Z because I may forget whether I put it in G or M...if you get my drift. Instead I'll classify the entries in some way i.e. under characters, under landscape/geography and so on.