Hello!
I am currently working through some critiques, and one that has popped up recently is that there appears to be 1-2 characters popping up each chapter in my murder mystery. I don't feel like I can smoosh any of these characters together though, and it's flumuxing.
This is going to be part asking for advice, and part exercise for me to try and hash this out some.
I'm doing first person POV.
To try and outline my characters and where they fit in the book, I'm going to go give some stats I worked out.
To keep it as simple as I can, I'm going to rate characters with the following:
1) Main characters - Show up very often, have large roles in the plot.
2) Secondary characters - Show up more than twice, have a significant role in the plot or character development of a MC.
3) Tertiary characters - May show up more than once, generally for information/clues.
4) Walk-ons - Show up once, may be mentioned in other chapters.
5) NPCs - You don't even have a name-tag, you've got no chance.
I've done the math on this (Engineer: I love spreadsheets) and got the following:
4 'Main' Characters, including my POV MC. POV-MC is in all 30, obvi, the other 3 are active in 13 - 19 chapters, and mentioned in 2-12 chapters.
8 'Secondary' Characters, which includes the BBEG, his lieutenants, my MC's BFF, a couple suspects, MC's boss and MC's secretary. They're active anywhere between 2-8 chapters, and mentioned in 4-10 chapters.
7 'Tertiary' Characters, including the MC love interest, office rival, witnesses and such. Activity nose-dives here, going to 1-3 active chapters and mentioned in 0-3 chapters.
14 'Walk-on' Characters, and another 12 un-named. These all only show up for 1 chapter, some have names, most are goons or don't have actual talking lines.
I feel like that's 12 characters (Main and secondary) that people have to remember while working through my crime drama. The tertiary characters have little reminders about who they are and what they do when I bring them up, so I'm not expecting them to take up much brain space. I know the reader doesn't instinctively know who to devote brain space to, but I'm trying my best to spread mention of my secondaries so they aren't forgotten.
Obviously I'm not expecting advice that says: Yes, you have too many characters, the hard and fast rule is 5 secondary characters, and you need to remove some goons too.
I'm just curious, compared to your own work, does it look like I have a lot of people in my book (total of 45 that are mentioned in some fashion)?
I am currently working through some critiques, and one that has popped up recently is that there appears to be 1-2 characters popping up each chapter in my murder mystery. I don't feel like I can smoosh any of these characters together though, and it's flumuxing.
This is going to be part asking for advice, and part exercise for me to try and hash this out some.
I'm doing first person POV.
To try and outline my characters and where they fit in the book, I'm going to go give some stats I worked out.
To keep it as simple as I can, I'm going to rate characters with the following:
1) Main characters - Show up very often, have large roles in the plot.
2) Secondary characters - Show up more than twice, have a significant role in the plot or character development of a MC.
3) Tertiary characters - May show up more than once, generally for information/clues.
4) Walk-ons - Show up once, may be mentioned in other chapters.
5) NPCs - You don't even have a name-tag, you've got no chance.
I've done the math on this (Engineer: I love spreadsheets) and got the following:
4 'Main' Characters, including my POV MC. POV-MC is in all 30, obvi, the other 3 are active in 13 - 19 chapters, and mentioned in 2-12 chapters.
8 'Secondary' Characters, which includes the BBEG, his lieutenants, my MC's BFF, a couple suspects, MC's boss and MC's secretary. They're active anywhere between 2-8 chapters, and mentioned in 4-10 chapters.
7 'Tertiary' Characters, including the MC love interest, office rival, witnesses and such. Activity nose-dives here, going to 1-3 active chapters and mentioned in 0-3 chapters.
14 'Walk-on' Characters, and another 12 un-named. These all only show up for 1 chapter, some have names, most are goons or don't have actual talking lines.
I feel like that's 12 characters (Main and secondary) that people have to remember while working through my crime drama. The tertiary characters have little reminders about who they are and what they do when I bring them up, so I'm not expecting them to take up much brain space. I know the reader doesn't instinctively know who to devote brain space to, but I'm trying my best to spread mention of my secondaries so they aren't forgotten.
Obviously I'm not expecting advice that says: Yes, you have too many characters, the hard and fast rule is 5 secondary characters, and you need to remove some goons too.
I'm just curious, compared to your own work, does it look like I have a lot of people in my book (total of 45 that are mentioned in some fashion)?