My biggest problem with character charts, outlines, whatever, is that they take so much TIME to put together. I'd rather spend that time writing. Later, when the book is resting, or out with betas, I'll put together a "book bible" that has all the character charts, place and place descriptions, and things I know I'll use for reference while revising, or in the future.
Especially for this current book I'm working on. There's a lot of unique curses, and a whole menagerie of creatures I need to keep track of, and then there's one character that expresses emotions through the color of her eyes, because that's all she has (seriously, she's a puff ball with eyes and a pari of hands). Right now I'm keeping track of all this stuff in the Project Notes, because it's easy to make quick notes there and keep writing.
It's the compiling all the notes that's going to take a while.
Hello to the new thread! I took a fire dancing class last night (for those that didn't see on Twitter and/or Facebook). I'm so stoked about it. It was such a blast, even just going over the basics. I have my own homemade poi, and I keep smacking my BOOKS with them. It's fun anyway.