How many characters are too many?

It isn't necessary to mention someone's name unless that character is important to the story, his name requires to be remembered, or he is going to re-appear or be referred to later.

I presume you are only naming your important characters. If you are finding it difficult to keep track of the names, the reader may do so, too. But you are having difficulty because you have to come up with different names -that's all.

It all boils down to context. There's plenty of stories with names of characters who are forgotten as the story goes on. The reader will remember the main ones -no?

If it works, use it. Ask your betas to comment on that point or ask them afterwards if you don't want to bring their attention to it too strongly.

I keep a list of all characters names. Every single one that I have named in my WIP.
When I introduce a single one that was not in the outline (usually minor), it gets his place there, with a few words describing who is.

I believe that if a character is really minor and will diappear pretty soon without coming back, it would be better to not name it at all, but sometimes the dialogue or some exposition requires it. I dont think it causes harm because the reader will forget it as easily as it came.

I think it does entirely depend on context. However, one thing that was once suggested to me, and that I find quite useful, is the concept of 'combining' minor characters.

So if character A appears once and then disappears from the novel, and then character B appears later on for some other reason, is it possible to merge both characters into character C? Cuts down on your character count and also provides some consistency for your reader.

Don't know if this will work in your novel, but might be worth considering.

Shara

Are those characters all main characters? How many are secondary and how many minor? And are those 24 characters in the story all at once? Do they have a purpose when they appear and is there clarity of who they are and why they're there?

I have about 20-30 characters in my novel, but only about 12 major/secondary characters.

I keep a list of characters names also, and I even give all of them a little bio. I never know if the character will pop up again, and I find it helps to know about ALL of your characters, not just the main ones.

I think it becomes too many if later on throughout the book, the reader says, "Wait a minute, what happened to that girl...?" Or the reader starts to get confused about who is who.

It sounds to me that you're fine, but the best way to find out is to beta.

Loriedna said:

I would say that only 8 or 9 of the characters are main ones, the rest contributing just with a story or with one event in my MC's life.

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8 or 9 is a lot of main characters (though it's possible that you and I define "main character" differently--but even there, 8 or 9 people whose names, stories and personalities the reader has to remember are a lot). I can't actually think of a good modern novel with one main character and that many other characters to keep track of. (19th-century Russian novels are another story, but I assume you're not trying to write a 19th-century Russian-style novel!).

But it is possible to make the group essentially be the main character. There's a book called "Writing the Breakout Novel" (which I recommend) that briefly discusses some books in which the main character is actually a group--like, the whole group goes through the story's big experience together, and comes out changed. Some random examples: The Breakfast Club, Cheaper by the Dozen (memoir, not novel, but the same basic rules apply), and The Big Chill. I'm just mentioning this because it's an approach that makes having so many characters workable--but it doesn't sound like this approach would work for the story you're trying to tell here.

I would second the vote of the poster who suggested combining characters. Not just minor characters who only appear once, though--you can combine major characters too, if you've got too many of them. And of course, you can cut some of them out.

Remembering the names, stories and personalities of main characters in a story is not a problem simply because of their being one of 9 or 12 or however many.

It's only a problem when the story is told in such a way it becomes difficult to remember what one is supposed to remember. Or if one is not reminded appropriately at any given time of what one should be remembering.

And I'm not familiar with the poster's story or how it is told.

my opinion, fwiw, is that if you use the same character name twice in different contexts, the reader is entitled to believe the character is someone they have to try to remember. Using it once and not repeating it is fine, so far as I am concerned. The little place in memory where the reader keeps such information won't be tickled again by the recognition of the old name, and it will therefore not begin asking "why did he show up again?"

In my writing, I have frequently used a relative or friend's name to tag a tangential character. When I described the operations of an obscure church, most of the people were cousins, for example. Thus, I remember easily the names used.