Secrets To Writing

(1c) How Many Characters Is Too Many?

Is your head full of a cast of characters you're longing to set forth on an epic adventure story?

Writing a story that includes many characters can add a layer of richness and detail to your story that many readers will respond well to.

It also allows your creative mind to explore a range of personalities and voices in your writing.

You need only look at grand stories such as A Song of Ice and Fire to see that a large cast of characters can both work well and attract a large readership.

If it's done in a way that adds authenticity to your story, there's no reason you can't have a multi-character cast. But you might wonder: how many characters is too many?

The short answer is: no such number exists. You can include as many characters in your novel as you want to.

It's your story, and there's no rule book you need to follow on how to write a great story. The creative process is yours to own.

However, before you delve straight into trying to create a George R. R. Martin level of character population in your story, it might be a good idea to ask yourself if it's really necessary to have a cast of hundreds.

Consider the following points to ensure you're not making your story more complicated than it needs to be.

Limit point-of-view characters

Having many characters in your story usually means you will also be writing from more than one point of view, especially if there's more than one protagonist/lead character.

This is an important storytelling technique that allows the reader to empathise with and follow the journeys of your many characters.

However, having too many POV characters can make your story unnecessarily difficult to read.

If every character, no matter their importance to the story, gets a point of view, your story can start to feel crowded and overly complicated.

Having two or three POV characters usually works well. Having more than that can not only confuse your reader but make it hard for you as a writer too.

Each point-of-view character needs a unique voice. If you're juggling too many, you might find you run out of ideas or ways to differentiate between voices.

Space out character introductions

Don't overwhelm your reader with too many characters at once. Not only will your story seem rushed, it will also be very confusing for your reader to take in so much information so quickly.

It can be very tempting to have all of your characters in a room at once, but just think about the information overload that would be for your reader.

While you are very familiar with each of your characters, your reader is only just getting to know them.

Think about how you feel when you walk into a very crowded room in real life. You can't take in everyone's names, occupations, and backstories right away.

It usually takes a while to absorb the information as you're talking to different people. You need to ease your readers into the process of meeting your characters in a similar way.

Start with your major characters and slowly introduce your minor characters as you go. Make sure you introduce them at a point where it makes sense to your story.

As always, you need to be constantly moving the plot forward.

Keep track of your characters