Do you use the Glossary feature?

[Goswick]

Hey, just figured I'd ask, but recently I found out about the glossary tab on here and I updated it to add a few descriptions of some recurring named characters. However, after looking around at some other stories, it doesn't seem like the glossary section gets much use.

I was just wondering if you guys have any stories where you've added glossaries, and what you think of glossaries on Scribblehub overall.

 

[ForestDweller]

Absolutely. I store almost everything there.

 

[AkalE]

I've never looked at the glossary for characters tbh.

I will most likely use the search and find function and go back to the first time the character was introduced, that generally jolts my memory.

Glossary, in my opinion, would be much more useful if you have foreign/alien/made up words in your story. In general I would suggest authors list out the meanings of those words. Even words like -chan, -kun etc. Even if I get it by context, I understand there is a hierarchy of those honorifics that I'm too lazy to remember.

 

[Seyer_Jad]

Try e

Glossary, in my opinion, would be much more useful if you have foreign/alien/made up words in your story. In general I would suggest authors list out the meanings of those words. Even words like -chan, -kun etc. Even if I get it by context, I understand there is a hierarchy of those honorifics that I'm too lazy to remember.

True, especially the lazy part XD

 

[MajorKerina]

I've experimented with it to catalog characters. I have a few maps I intend to include eventually but it's challenging to figure out how much info to give for first time readers, if they browse there before reading.

 

[TheOneWho]

How do you use it?

 

[K5Rakitan]

I put in a couple of words. I could probably put in more, but I don't feel like doing the work.

 

[BenJepheneT]

i don't use it, mostly because i prefer my worldbuilding to be done exactly in the story itself, and leave the details of my universe for the readers' imagination based on the themes, settings, and clues left throughout the writing. i find listing details about your world to be soul-suckingly boring, with the only true difference it'll ever make is provide some context in the story, and even then if you are a good enough writer you could do that without an encyclopedia beside your readers to educate them. if I ever need to use a glossary, it'll probably be arbitrary and mundane stuff like "Contents of Character's Backpack" or "Character's Morning Routine" or "Recipe for Banana Pancake" just for the fuck of it.

 

[tiaf]

I do, but I’m not sure if anyone is checking it out as the content is just artwork that is forgotten by the next chapter.

 

[AliceShiki]

i don't use it, mostly because i prefer my worldbuilding to be done exactly in the story itself, and leave the details of my universe for the readers' imagination based on the themes, settings, and clues left throughout the writing. i find listing details about your world to be soul-suckingly boring, with the only true difference it'll ever make is provide some context in the story, and even then if you are a good enough writer you could do that without an encyclopedia beside your readers to educate them. if I ever need to use a glossary, it'll probably be arbitrary and mundane stuff like "Contents of Character's Backpack" or "Character's Morning Routine" or "Recipe for Banana Pancake" just for the fuck of it.

I thought most people used the Glossary just as a Character List of sorts to help people that forgot who character X is?

Like, you list character X in your glossary to allow people to look them up in case they took a big hiatus from the series and don't remember character names anymore and stuff.

 

[mostlyharmfulll]

I currently not use a glossary, but only because my story is still at the start. Once I have a few dozen chapters, I might make one.

 

[BenJepheneT]

I thought most people used the Glossary just as a Character List of sorts to help people that forgot who character X is?

Like, you list character X in your glossary to allow people to look them up in case they took a big hiatus from the series and don't remember character names anymore and stuff.

I might sound like a twat from this but I hold the opposite more true. if I need a list of characters to remind my readers who's involved in what in my story, chances are my characters aren't memorable or interesting enough in the first place. speaking from personal experience, I sometimes forget even the main characters of the common, weekly updated isekai manga but somehow, with only an average of 3 chapters per YEAR, I could still list out most of the characters in Berserk. hell, Hunter X Hunter went in hiatus since LAST YEAR and I could still remember the Succession Contest Arc with certain clarity.

point is, if I make a character list in my glossary with the intention to remind occasional readers who my characters are, it's like personally admitting that I'm not confident in my story bringing out the best of my characters and that I need a grocery list to remind them why they're worthy of attention in the first place. the only good I can see out of this is little trivia tidbits you could fit in the character list to give your characters a little bit more flair, which isn't worth it, to me at least.

 

[AliceShiki]

I might sound like a twat from this but I hold the opposite more true. if I need a list of characters to remind my readers who's involved in what in my story, chances are my characters aren't memorable or interesting enough in the first place. speaking from personal experience, I sometimes forget even the main characters of the common, weekly updated isekai manga but somehow, with only an average of 3 chapters per YEAR, I could still list out most of the characters in Berserk. hell, Hunter X Hunter went in hiatus since LAST YEAR and I could still remember the Succession Contest Arc with certain clarity.

point is, if I make a character list in my glossary with the intention to remind occasional readers who my characters are, it's like personally admitting that I'm not confident in my story bringing out the best of my characters and that I need a grocery list to remind them why they're worthy of attention in the first place. the only good I can see out of this is little trivia tidbits you could fit in the character list to give your characters a little bit more flair, which isn't worth it, to me at least.

I dunno, I'm not very good with names, so I tend to forget even the MC names of pretty much anything I'm reading if enough time passes... Unless the story is like... My super duper favorite and stuff.

Hell, I even forgot the name of one of the key characters of a novel I was translating at one point... It even happened to characters of a novel I was creating on my head back when I was a teen (Back then I never wrote them, I just created the stories while I was walking to the bus stop and stuff) actually, so... Well, I can understand people forgetting character names.

 

[GhostlyArtz]

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what the glossary is for so- I'm using it as world building aspects. I've put a lot of effort into my world, religion, etc and not all of it is going to make it into my story so I'm using it more as a- hey if you are interested, here's some rambles about things relevant to the story-ish

 

[yansusustories]

point is, if I make a character list in my glossary with the intention to remind occasional readers who my characters are, it's like personally admitting that I'm not confident in my story bringing out the best of my characters and that I need a grocery list to remind them why they're worthy of attention in the first place.

I agree with @AliceShiki that it's handy for people who have a hard time remembering names. And even for other people, I think it might depend on the names a bit. Like, some people have trouble remembering names of specific languages (I have a very hard time with Korean names, for example, and sometimes jumble up Japanese ones) or can't deal with fantasy names very well.

Furthermore, the number of characters and the length of a novel can, IMO, also influence whether a glossary might be needed. Like, the more chapters (or rather the amount of words) and the more characters there are, the harder it might be to remember all of them. (Not for everyone, obviously, but at least for some people.)
Like, personally, I did start a glossary (even though I didn't update in ages ...) and while I doubt anybody will have a problem remembering the names of the main characters themselves, there are dozens of supporting characters that will sometimes only appear once or twice per volume and then maybe not turn up for a few at all.
I absolutely do not expect my readers to remember every single one of them. Of course, when they do turn up after a couple hundred chapters again, I will put a short reminder in the text as well but even with daily updates, a chapter 400 chapters ago would mean that a year has passed since the character appeared for the last time and not everybody will know exactly who is meant even with that and rather than pondering on it, looking it up in a glossary is easier.

Other than that, I've noticed that some readers have more trouble remembering the relationships than the characters themselves. Like, I have the kind of novel where somebody will reincarnate for a trial, have a wife and child, get killed, return to his own life only for the child to later turn up as the fiance of some girl working for the mother of the reincarnated main character who is - in turn - the child's cousin I guess it's unsurprising that it can get confusing at times.
Unfortunately, SH's glossary isn't really good for showing that. Like, sure, I can write down who is the child of whom and stuff but it's just not intuitive. I recently made my own relationship charts to solve that issue and feel like it turned out quite well. I need a bunch though since it's just way too many characters to put it all in one. It's kind of crazy how much actually happens over the span of a few volumes ...

Anyway, TL;DR: I think there are valid reasons for having a glossary. Besides the readers' ability to remember and the memorability of the names, the time since a character was last mentioned, and a character's role in the story can all influence that.

 

[BenJepheneT]

I agree with @AliceShiki that it's handy for people who have a hard time remembering names. And even for other people, I think it might depend on the names a bit. Like, some people have trouble remembering names of specific languages (I have a very hard time with Korean names, for example, and sometimes jumble up Japanese ones) or can't deal with fantasy names very well.

Furthermore, the number of characters and the length of a novel can, IMO, also influence whether a glossary might be needed. Like, the more chapters (or rather the amount of words) and the more characters there are, the harder it might be to remember all of them. (Not for everyone, obviously, but at least for some people.)
Like, personally, I did start a glossary (even though I didn't update in ages ...) and while I doubt anybody will have a problem remembering the names of the main characters themselves, there are dozens of supporting characters that will sometimes only appear once or twice per volume and then maybe not turn up for a few at all.
I absolutely do not expect my readers to remember every single one of them. Of course, when they do turn up after a couple hundred chapters again, I will put a short reminder in the text as well but even with daily updates, a chapter 400 chapters ago would mean that a year has passed since the character appeared for the last time and not everybody will know exactly who is meant even with that and rather than pondering on it, looking it up in a glossary is easier.

Other than that, I've noticed that some readers have more trouble remembering the relationships than the characters themselves. Like, I have the kind of novel where somebody will reincarnate for a trial, have a wife and child, get killed, return to his own life only for the child to later turn up as the fiance of some girl working for the mother of the reincarnated main character who is - in turn - the child's cousin I guess it's unsurprising that it can get confusing at times.
Unfortunately, SH's glossary isn't really good for showing that. Like, sure, I can write down who is the child of whom and stuff but it's just not intuitive. I recently made my own relationship charts to solve that issue and feel like it turned out quite well. I need a bunch though since it's just way too many characters to put it all in one. It's kind of crazy how much actually happens over the span of a few volumes ...

Anyway, TL;DR: I think there are valid reasons for having a glossary. Besides the readers' ability to remember and the memorability of the names, the time since a character was last mentioned, and a character's role in the story can all influence that.

I can understand your sentiment, but what I'm seeing here is a rather rare situation. If it's to the point where you're reaching up to One Piece level of chapters, you're bound to break the human capacity of remembering certain characters. A glossary or at least a "So Far..." chapter would help freshen minds.

Plus, and take this as my personal opinion, I don't think many authors, me included, would find themselves writing a relationship this

Like, I have the kind of novel where somebody will reincarnate for a trial, have a wife and child, get killed, return to his own life only for the child to later turn up as the fiance of some girl working for the mother of the reincarnated main character who is - in turn - the child's cousin I guess it's unsurprising that it can get confusing at times.

unique.

 

[yansusustories]

a rather rare situation

True that. But that's still why I like having the option of a glossary (I actually think we agree there? ). I'd never use it for my shorter stuff either but I think it can still be handy for a longer series. And I don't know, I always picture web novels as super long somehow

I have no idea of how long One Piece is, btw. But looking it up, there seem to be like 90 or a hundred volumes? Dang it, is this a challenge?

 

[BenJepheneT]

But that's still why I like having the option of a glossary (I actually think we agree there? ).

I never said the feature of a glossary is pointless. I just say I think for me to use it is a sort of a cheap cop out, no matter how good I sugercoat it.

I have no idea of how long One Piece is, btw. But looking it up, there seem to be like 90 or a hundred volumes? Dang it, is this a challenge?

DETHRONE THE KING FUCKING DO IT

 

[yansusustories]

I never said the feature of a glossary is pointless. I just say I think for me to use it is a sort of a cheap cop out, no matter how good I sugercoat it.


DETHRONE THE KING FUCKING DO IT

Ah, yes, I agree then. For most novels, it would likely be unnecessary and it's only in specific circumstances that it really comes in handy. I actually think that quite a few of the examples mentioned in this thread are such circumstances

And I guess I accept that challenge Guess I won't be bored for the time being ...

 

[JayDirex]

eeeh? @flucket has a nice glossary...ima do that.