What is the right balance of characters?

[Diviner]

My historical novel is an adventure story with a fairly large cast of pov characters. As I write it, I keep wanting to show more and more of the lives and relationships of various characters to the point at which my main character becomes somewhat overwhelmed, especially by the real historical figures. How do writers learn to restrain themselves? Is there any guide to where to draw the line?

The sub-plots also fascinate me, but I have better control over them. Primarily, I am concerned that I may be spending too much time on the other characters. Right now, at 87000 wc, about 3/4 is directly about the problems and adventures--from his pov (3rd limited)-- of my MC, and the other quarter is mixed pov of the other characters. My main reason for the multiple pov approach is to make the history part clearer, but I also think it gives the work more scope, cutting a wide swath through social classes, which is one of the themes of the book.

I did not have this problem with my two earlier books, because they were pure fiction. With this book, though, the real people--and even some of the fictional characters--get away from me. What principals should I keep in mind so that my story does not lose its focus?

[AdamH]

I suppose the first question that comes to mind is what characters are most relevant to the plot of the adventure? These should be your primary focus. The amount of time your spend on the character should be proportional to their importance to the story.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, what characters have nothing to do with your adventure? Cut them or only mention them in passing (if the other more relevant characters get relevant information from them).
History is full of colourful intriguing characters that are easy (and fun) to get caught up in. From the sounds of it, you already know all about that. :)
Or, consider it this way: If Fictitious Character A runs into, let's say, JFK, is it relevant to describe JFK's relationship with Marilyn Monroe when the story is about Character A's stance on the Cuban Missile Crisis? Unless, of course, Fictitious Character A had a relationship with Marilyn then I suppose it would be.

[jules]

I read somewhere that you should have at least 30,000 words for any POV character you introduce, but that seems like a stupid rule to me.

But, that said: If I were reading your book I'd want to see a lot of words for any characters I considered really important; if you have a single protagonist I'd like to see him having at least 50,000 words. Two protagonists, maybe 30,000 words each.

Other POV characters can come and go, and should probably have a number of words roughly proportional to how important to the story they are.

As an example, one of the novels I'm working on has 2 POV characters, the protagonist and his sister. The story primarily concerns those two: the sister is abducted, and the protagonist helps her to escape. I have the protagonist with about 2/3rds of the story (currently about 40,000 words, but this will be expanded substantially during rewrites), and his sister with about 1/3rd (about 20,000 words -- this might not expand as much, so will probably drop in proportion). The antagonist's POV is used, but only briefly: he gets only 1,000 words (in two scenes, one at the beginning and one at the end).

[Julie Worth]

The 30,000 sounds entirely arbitrary. I’ve read books (best-selling thrillers, in particular) where POV characters may only get a single scene (because afterwards, often enough, they’re dead). But these are plot driven books, as compared to yours, which sounds more like a sprawling epic. Anyway, I don’t believe in rules, except maybe this one: keep the reader turning the page.

[katdad]

With a historic novel you will probably want to spend more time on each character, so you may want to reign in the total quantity of main characters to create a balance.

I think we all have this problem. In my series of mystery novels, I have certain reoccuring characters whom I intend to slip in and out of the books as needed, and I am introducing at least one new interesting (I hope interesting) character per novel, to add to my stock.

Your present book, being factual in part, may pose more tricky problems, since many of the characters are real. Just realize that you're still in control, and you don't want to overwhelm the text (or the reader) with too many POVs.

[Diviner]

The 30,000 sounds entirely arbitrary. I’ve read books (best-selling thrillers, in particular) where POV characters may only get a single scene (because afterwards, often enough, they’re dead). But these are plot driven books, as compared to yours, which sounds more like a sprawling epic. Anyway, I don’t believe in rules, except maybe this one: keep the reader turning the page.

It doesn't quite sprawl, but I am worried that it might. As long as readers keep turning the pages, I don't really care, but it is hard to tell if they will get confused.

Thanks for the input, everyone.