Marley Sinclair
# of Characters & Naming Characters
Hi all!
I'm basically a lurker here. Gleaning all the information I can from the more experienced folks that post here. Over the last several days, you guys have said several things that really makes me wonder just have successful my (first) novel can be.
Without going into laborious details, I have approximately 32 characters in my book. They're broken down into about 7 family groups (with the rest thrown in as just single characters). The broad sweeping premise is a love triangle with a pair of killers thrown in for good measure :b .
So from what I've read on the boards, I seem to have two problems...first: too many characters. And second, you can't have 32 characters without a few having names that start with the same letter.
How 'ironclad' are these rules?? I mean, "Strangers" by Dean Koontz was chocked full of characters (not sure there was quite 32 in there), and his novel worked--'course, I will admit he has just a little more experience than I do .
And the name thing--after reading about not naming your characters with the same first letter, I realized I had a Matt, Mitch, and Michael. But those names really fit the characters, at least in my mind. So is that REALLY a big deal???
I'm totally a newbie at this, so advice is always welcome.
Thanks in advance!
Marley
Hi all!
I'm basically a lurker here. Gleaning all the information I can from the more experienced folks that post here. Over the last several days, you guys have said several things that really makes me wonder just have successful my (first) novel can be.
Without going into laborious details, I have approximately 32 characters in my book. They're broken down into about 7 family groups (with the rest thrown in as just single characters). The broad sweeping premise is a love triangle with a pair of killers thrown in for good measure :b .
So from what I've read on the boards, I seem to have two problems...first: too many characters. And second, you can't have 32 characters without a few having names that start with the same letter.
How 'ironclad' are these rules?? I mean, "Strangers" by Dean Koontz was chocked full of characters (not sure there was quite 32 in there), and his novel worked--'course, I will admit he has just a little more experience than I do .
And the name thing--after reading about not naming your characters with the same first letter, I realized I had a Matt, Mitch, and Michael. But those names really fit the characters, at least in my mind. So is that REALLY a big deal???
I'm totally a newbie at this, so advice is always welcome.
Thanks in advance!
Marley