How soon should you have your full cast of characters?

How soon in a novle should you have your full cast of main and secondary characters assembled? Or is it okay to introduce secondary characters as you go along? I just don't want to fill my story w/too many.

The character should apppear when they are needed. Even your main characters don't have to appear at once. It's like in a play or a movie: You rarely see the entire cast on stage or on screen until the curtain call. Your characters come on for the first time when they have a line or have to do something. They may be mentioned in other characters' dialogue.

Just recall any book you read. How often do you find the whole cast of characters in the beginning of a novel? Almost never.

How soon in a novle should you have your full cast of main and secondary characters assembled? Or is it okay to introduce secondary characters as you go along? I just don't want to fill my story w/too many.

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I don't assemble any of the character, protagonist, antagonist, or secondary. As a character is needed, he walks onstage.

You can create small characters as you go along. For principal characters, you should have 4-5 of them, maybe, outlined or biographed when you begin.

You'll find that the other characters will "invent themselves" as you go along.

Sometimes you'll need to go back and revise a character but that happens to everybody. Just start telling the story and things will fall into place.

An aside

Just start telling the story and things will fall into place.

This is one of the best pieces of writing advice I've ever heard. I can really see it happening now as I proceed with the book. Just let the story unfold -- it will tell you which characters to cast, where and how.

For principal characters, you should have 4-5 of them, maybe, outlined or biographed when you begin.

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You can, but I wouldn't say "should." I don't do this, and neitehr do most of my favorite writers.