Too many characters, not enough room?

ZannaPerry · Sep 8, 2007

As I think on my current WIP, I am feeling I have too many characters, but they're all important to my story, and all hold valuable information for the way I am headed.

I was talking to my mother about this tonight, who is a book freak, and I was asking her if I had too many characters, and I was confusing her. Which isn't a good thing, at all! I don't want to confuse my readers.

So, I guess what I am trying to ask is since all my characters, which they're only seven....how do you make all their independent stories and schemes not overpower the main story? I do have a MC, and it is written in 3rd POV, and mostly told through her eyes...So, how would you keep the other characters' POV's under a minimum?

I have the MC, the hero, and the villian....those are my three most talked about characters.

Any advice to not overcrowd??

Melanie Nilles · Sep 8, 2007

SuzyB said:
As I think on my current WIP, I am feeling I have too many characters, but they're all important to my story, and all hold valuable information for the way I am headed.

I was talking to my mother about this tonight, who is a book freak, and I was asking her if I had too many characters, and I was confusing her. Which isn't a good thing, at all! I don't want to confuse my readers.

So, I guess what I am trying to ask is since all my characters, which they're only seven....how do you make all their independent stories and schemes not overpower the main story? I do have a MC, and it is written in 3rd POV, and mostly told through her eyes...So, how would you keep the other characters' POV's under a minimum?

I have the MC, the hero, and the villian....those are my three most talked about characters.

Any advice to not overcrowd??

Why would it overcrowd? You can have as many characters as you want, but I'd limit the POV characters to only those necessary for the main plot. Sure, each character is going to have their own motivations and schemes, but stick to those that are related to the main plot. Subplots can help but they should support the main plot.

Each scene ask yourself what you want to convey to progress the main plot. What is the purpose of the scene? Then ask whose POV will add the most to the development of the scene and the plot. If the POV characters are in separate places, that's easy, but why then is the scene necessary?

Last, if you feel these POV characters are all necessary, ask yourself why. What does each contribute?

I'm sure others will jump in, but those are some of the things I use in my writing.

johnzakour · Sep 8, 2007

My simple advice is while you can have a lot of characters in a story try not to have more than 4-5 on the "screen" at any one time.

Felicia Beasley · Sep 8, 2007

If you really feel like you have too many characters (and to me seven isn't too many unless they are all pov characters, and even then, if it works in your story, then no worries) then list the supporting cast and their role in the novel. See if you can combine any of these characters into one, giving them more roles.

Whether or not you have any characters that can be merged is completely a personal decision. If you feel each adds something unique to the story, then go for it. If you do decide to merge two characters into one, make sure to keep the old draft in case it doesn't end up working in practice.

Good luck!

Carmy · Sep 8, 2007

Curently I'm reading Tom Clancy's Clear and Present Danger. I'm not sure how many characters he has but there are far more than seven. Each character is distinctive and easily recognised when one of them turns up.

Clancy also employs a neat trick which I might be using myself one of these WIPs -- one of his characters, Sargeant Chavez, has two side-kick characters, a fellow sargeant and their immediate superior. Although Chavez is the POV character in his scenes, the reader more or less takes it for granted that the other two will pop in. So there are several important characters with their own POVs but each has a few non-POV minions.

It's a complicated story yet Clancy has managed to place each group in its own compartment and, thus far, nothing has appeared confusing. Mind you, I'm only on page 241 so things could change. Somehow I doubt it because Clancy is a good writer.

JoNightshade · Sep 9, 2007

Carmy said:
Curently I'm reading Tom Clancy's Clear and Present Danger. I'm not sure how many characters he has but there are far more than seven. Each character is distinctive and easily recognised when one of them turns up.

Side note here. C&PD is the first and only Tom Clancy book I ever read. I read it twice. Why? Because I couldn't figure out what the heck was going on!!! Someone told me later that it's considered his most confusing book.

On the other hand, I was in Jr. Hi. So. You know. I could have just been dumb.

~grace~ · Sep 9, 2007

One thing I'm currently doing is combining characters. I have two characters who each sorta add to the plot, so I'm turning them into one who actually makes a difference.

Seven doesn't sound too bad, though. See what your betas say.

JanDarby · Sep 9, 2007

Seven isn't outrageous, but consider whether you can collapse a couple into one person. (That hint is from the Donal Maass book on breakout novels, I think.)

For instance, if you need Person X to reveal a certain tidbit of information, and you need Person Y to convince the protagonist to do something later on, consider whether Person X and Person Y can be the same person.

I usually have about five important characters -- heroine, hero, sidekick/confidante for each of them, and the antagonist. So, really, you're not far off from the bare minimum.

Oh, and make sure they're spaced out throughout the book. If Person X only shows up in the first fifty pages and is never seen again, that character would be a good candidate for combining with someone who is more involved later in the book.

JD

ZannaPerry · Sep 9, 2007

I'm going through my characters this afternoon, and see if I can combine any or not. But from the looks of it last night, and this morning I don't think it's going to work.

amber_grosjean · Sep 9, 2007

7 is actually a small amount of characters. That seems like a really small number to mine. I have 1 MC and then a small handful of secondary main characters who all push the story along. Then a lot of the minor characters, some only get mentioned once, some only a few times, but they also push the story along so they are necesary for the story.

But I agree, if you only use so many per scene, it should never get crowded. The world is a big place and when you walk into a bar, there may be a lot of people. Just mentioning 3 people wouldn't be real. If that is the case for some scenes, you can mention there are more people and then just focus on the 3 people in the story, giving it a more presense. This is only an example but I think you get the point lol (I hope you do anyway).

If you feel 7 is too many, maybe rewording only mentioning the important characters would help and you wouldn't really lose any of the characters, some would just be more silent than the others. If those are all major characters, there must be a reason for it. If the reason does push the story to that ending, go for it. Like I said, I did use a lot for mine too. Revising the story will help eliviate confusion.

Amber

ZannaPerry · Sep 9, 2007

Well, I have the villain, who is just as important as the MC, and then I have the second main character (the hero) and the other four (actually seven because I forgot one in my count) are also essential to the story, but only one out of the seven is truly involved as much as the other three. The others are only mentioned a few times because they aren't that much involved the plot.

So, now, I have ten characters...One MC, two supporting with big roles, one mentioned but not as big as the MC or supporting, then the other six are scattered through out the book.

I think that will be okay, and less confusing for me.

maestrowork · Sep 9, 2007

7 main characters is not that many. It depends on how you tell the story -- do you split POVs? Or do you keep the POVs rather limited to fewer than three characters?

In my WIP I have only two main characters and I switch between their POVs. But I have many characters in the book, some minor and some not so minor. I make sure I only write from two POVs, thus keeping it simple.

ZannaPerry · Sep 9, 2007

They are limited. Like I said in my previous post I have three POVs, actually four, and the others are mixed within the POVS of that character talking.

maestrowork · Sep 9, 2007

I think three switching POVs are perfectly fine in a novel. Even four is manageable.

Shane Fitzsimmons · Sep 9, 2007

Having more than a few POV characters can be bad, but I've seen it handled well on a variety of occasions. I think though that if your main storyline follows just a few characters, your story is going to be significantly strengthened by limiting the amount of POV characters you have. POV characters really have to be special enough to warrant getting that kind of attention. If it's ultimately just about infodumping from another perspective, I'd urge you to find another way.

That said, I've seen stories told really well that dealt with ridiculous amounts of characters, almost all of whom were given equal time and focus. Usually there's less of a central storyline and more of an overall theme, that everybody is loosely attached to but a lot of the time they don't even have to cross paths. I once started plotting out a story that was sort of like this, that wound up having more than sixty significantly important, named characters. It was difficult, and I wound up dropping the project because I realized I was working on the story less because I was passionate about the story itself and more because I wanted to prove that it could be done. Once I realized that I was working on it for the wrong reasons it didn't take me long to drop the project all together, but I'm still confident that it can be done.

My favorite novel has about nine PoV characters, and the sequel has nearly double that. So it can be done, you just have to have the skill and focus to do it well.

maestrowork · Sep 9, 2007

I read one novel with four 1st person POVs -- it was a bit too much to handle, as a reader.

ishtar'sgate · Sep 9, 2007

I don't think seven is too many. The only thing you want to watch out for is confusing the reader so they don't know who is who. Make sure you give them very different names. It makes them easier to recognize. Don't name one Dan and one Don, for example. When characters have similar names it causes the reader to stop for a minute to determine who is speaking or in the action. Also, give them distinguishing features or mannerisms, something that sets them apart from the other characters. Hope that helps.
Linnea

Shane Fitzsimmons · Sep 9, 2007

More important than different names is different voices. They really need to both sound different, think about different things, think in different ways, and be working towards different goals, at all times. I really don't think there's an exception to this. Different names are fine too, but I don't care if you call one character Frank and another one Messianoicfluxuva, if they sound the same and are working towards similar things, the reader's going to get confused.

Carrie in PA · Sep 9, 2007

One of my favorite books is Stephen King's The Stand. It had something like a million very important characters. Not a book, but my favorite movie, Love, Actually, also uses a large number of pretty main characters who all interweave at one point or another.

My advice is to finish the WIP and let a trusted person beta for you. It *sounds* kinda confusing the way you're describing it, but I bet it's really not!

ZannaPerry · Sep 9, 2007

Again, I'm going through my characters later today and see how I can make them all different from the other. You all are helping! Thank you!

Wolvel · Sep 9, 2007

9- Werewolf MC's

7- Human MC's

Carmy · Sep 9, 2007

SuzyB said:
Again, I'm going through my characters later today and see how I can make them all different from the other. You all are helping! Thank you!

Think backgrounds. If I know where a character is coming from I find him/her easier to remember. Back to Clancy again -- Chavez came from a street-gang background and occasionally he compares his early days with what's happening in his branch of the secret-ops army. I believe Clancy does that to remind the reader of the characater's background. It works.

GerriB · Sep 9, 2007

Some books benefit from the "cast of thousands" attitude. Some don't. It's a matter of how narrow the focus is on the Story, IMO. If the Story is more epic-style or epic, the cast of thousands is usually a good idea. If the story is a more intimate look at at the life of--then yeah, too many characters can scatter the focus.

If you feel like there are too many characters, there probably are. See how many characters can be combined into one that can multi-purpose. Reuse minor characters. That sort of stuff.

Most of all, follow your intuition in these sorts of things.

Good luck!

johnzakour · Sep 10, 2007

You can have a cast of thousands, they just can't all be talking at once.

seun · Sep 10, 2007

Carrie in PA said:
Not a book, but my favorite movie, Love, Actually, also uses a large number of pretty main characters who all interweave at one point or another.

BOO HISS for the Love Actually reference.

Too many characters, not enough room?

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