Writing projects generate notes. A sci-fi or fantasy project may generate pages and pages of world building or backstory notes. A small town mystery, just lists of character names and names of significant places. I used to be unorganized with my notes, and lost some that I wanted later. So now I have 3 ring binders dedicated to a project or group of them, with alphabetical dividers to make things findable.
I used to print out these things— I wrote them down in the Scrivener project in files under ‘research.’ But because of current computer/printer woes, I now write things by hand.You may wonder why I want hard copies at all. It’s because when I am actively writing a scene, I may need info that isn’t in that particular Scrivener file. I may need to consult my master list of words in the Konju alien language to give a Konju person or place a name. It’s easier to find in an organized notebook than by searching through multiple Scrivener files. If you might use the same setting for multiple projects, don’t file it all under the names of individual projects. I’d never find my Konju stuff if I had to remember the original name of the project for which I created the Konju!
Character lists might be under the project name, or be under ‘character list’ with the project name or number as a subcategory. The reason for your notebook is to make your writing work easier. You don’t want to have to skim through one hundred or one thousand pages to recover the name of a person or place you mentioned in passing. With a good notebook, you can have all that stuff to hand. Some writers plan everything out in advance, in detailed outlines. Others don’t. All kinds of writers should take notes as they go, for filing later. You may invent a minor character or an event or place that wasn’t in your outline. Make it easy on yourself- jot down notes, and file them.
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