How do you keep track of characters in a book when you have ADHD?

Why names slip away

A new character arrives as a name plus two or three facts, and you have to hold those facts until the character matters again, sometimes a hundred pages later. That holding is working memory, and working memory is one of the executive functions that ADHD commonly strains. (CHADD) Add a two-week break between sessions and a cast of twenty, and it is no wonder that page 180 feels like a party where you have forgotten everyone's name.

The fix is not to try harder to remember. It is to stop relying on memory for the cast at all. Readers have always done this: many long novels print a list of characters at the front for exactly this reason.

Five ways to keep the cast straight

1. A cast card in the book

An index card used as your bookmark: one line per character with the name, who they are in four or five words, who they are tied to, and the page you met them. Add a line only when a character comes back a second time; that rule keeps walk-on parts off the card. Our printable cast list template is ruled for it.

2. A hook for each name

When a name arrives, attach it to one vivid detail the book gives you: the one with the burned hand, the sister who lies. Say it once in your head as a pair. A name alone is hard to keep; a name with a picture is much easier to find again.

3. Use what the book already gives you

Check the front and back of the book before you start. Fantasy, historical fiction and big family novels often include a list of characters, a family tree, a map or a glossary. Put a sticky tab on that page so it is one flip away. In an ebook, add a bookmark to it.

4. Let audio help with names

Hearing a narrator say a name the same way every time can make invented or unfamiliar names easier to recognize than seeing them in print, where your eye may skim them. Listening and reading have shown similar comprehension in research on the same texts. (Rogowsky, Calhoun and Tallal, 2016) Immersion reading, listening while you read, gives you both.

5. A cast list someone else keeps

Several tools build a character list for you. Each has a catch:

Magic Bookmark's cast list is the closest to a cast card that keeps itself: you photograph the page you are on, and it shows who is who and how they are connected, built only from what you have read. You can also type @ and a name to ask that character a question, and they only know the story up to your page. Our Magic Bookmark guide covers which books it supports.

A two-minute routine before each session

1. Read your cast card, top to bottom. Ten seconds.
2. Read the last page you remember clearly, not the last page you reached.
3. If a name in the next pages means nothing to you, check the card or the book's own list before reading on. Do not push through confused; it compounds.
4. At the end of the session, add any character who came back for the second time.