Writing Strategies and Lego People

I have been working on a novel for some years now, and it is time to get it finished. Most of it is done, or at least most of the part that is easy to manage is done. For the last 2 years I've been languishing with the problem that at one point the number of characters that enter into the story has gotten too complicated for me to keep straight. A lot of them are minor players, but they all have specific reasons or roles to play. It wouldn't be so much of a problem if the characters were completely made up in my mind, but they aren't: they are drawn from the list of Arthurian knights, so they come with a lot of baggage! In the story I am writing, the knights or other characters that I am including all have some connection to their literary counterparts, but they are not necessarily them; they are what could be the "kernel of truth" that later became what the likes of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chrétien de Troyes, or Sir Thomas Malory wrote about.

Without going into too much detail about the story, I have to write scenes that include many characters and their interactions. Keeping track of them and consistent has been a challenge, so I've devised a plan that I will give a try: I will use Lego people to stage each scene so I can visualize what is happening, who is there and involved and keep track of the events as they unfold.

Thanks to Noah, who has helped me sort through all of the Lego we have to find as many as we can collect. I ended up buying him a couple of small sets of Lego as an early birthday present, sans the people!