For you, what do you think is too many characters?

[WatermelonPink]

Basically how many characters in the main or reoccurring cast are too many for you? I am mainly asking this because I keep having the urge to add new characters to my story and for the past few days I have been wanting to add in three or four extra ones to the list of antagonists or supporting cast members though I am a little unsure. I already have a really big cast as is but that might just be me thinking that it's a big cast for this type of fantasy series. I have around somewhere over 40? characters I plan on using. Maybe more, maybe less. Maybe I'm just dumb but it feels like that might be a good bit and I don't know if I should try introducing more or leave it as it is.

 

[Valtharius]

If it's a single, self-contained work you're probably already approaching the outer limits with 40. If this is a multi-volume series intended to show many facets of a wide, expansive, fictional world, go nuts.

 

[Droflet]

I use as many characters as are necessary to support a good yarn. Naturally, there will be a core of characters surrounded by supporting members. First and foremost, go with your gut. Good luck.

 

[HareBrain]

I keep having the urge to add new characters to my story

George, nice to see you here! How's The Winds of Winter coming?

Naturally, there will be a core of characters surrounded by supporting members.

A danger comes when the author (see above) gets too fond of the supporting cast members (who are often more quirky because they don't have to carry the logic of the plot) and decides to expand them to a main role. After all, it's a huge fantasy series, so there's room, right? Well, there might be on the page, but not necessarily in the reader's mind.

 

[The Big Peat]

This is a real "piece of string" question that's got a bunch of effecting factors. Do the new characters lead to a bigger story, or are they simply different PoVs on the existing story (are they even PoVs)? Do they all roughly have the same voice? How many scenes do they get? Etc.etc.

You said series - how many books/words are you thinking?

 

[Droflet]

Yes, HB, hence the term supporting. I agree with you, of course, that the supporting characters should never be prominent enough to overwhelm the core characters.

 

[Ogma]

Do all these characters impact the story? (that is it doesn't end up with tens of characters running around looking for something to do.)
How memorable are they?
How distinct from each other are they?
Over what time period are they introduced? (Think of it as a party. If you're introduced to 40 people in quick succession, you're not going to remember faces, much less names.)
Could you take the essential elements of two/three of them and merge them together to make a better character? The less characters, the more each of them has to work, the easier it is to breathe life into them and the more memorable they become.

 

[Toby Frost]

I agree. I reckon that seven to ten core characters is about enough for them to be really clearly differentiated in a standard-length novel. I suspect that after a while, the mind either runs out of mental images or starts to merge characters into groups.

 

[Amy-rose]

It becomes to many for me when characters start to lose purpose and point, especially in a group, to the point chapters go by without them being mentioned even though they are meant to be present. I do prefer one or two characters I can get really close to, so that's how I tend to write.

 

[tinkerdan]

I would go with, as many as needed; however I think that it really boils down to how many the author can handle.
Also I should qualify, when I think of characters, that I mean ones that have a major role in the story and minor ones that the author has to keep track of throughout the whole story.

One word of advice I found helpful is that when editing through the first time take a strong look at each minor character and the scene and consider whether you could scratch that character and give the scene to another character or maybe even scratch the scene.

Finally, consider that no matter how much you as an author can handle, you should also consider how much the average reader can handle.

extra note:
Consider also how you are going to do POV in the story.
Dune is a favorite read of mine.
However one of the most annoying things in the novel is that there are inner thoughts from the characters that are there to basically show how there is a breakdown in communication between people in the story that drives the story's direction.
An average scene can have the direct thoughts of three or more characters, which means that the POV is constantly switching back and forth and all around.

Too many focus characters can play havoc with the POV.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

I agree with much that has been said above. Forty seems quite a high number of characters for the reader to keep track of. If you decide to use this many, it might be worth making sure none of them have names that are even slightly similar, e.g. same first letter.

 

[Wayne Mack]

One thing to consider is the rule of thumb of 7 +/- 2 items that the human mind can track at once. The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two - Wikipedia

To maintain broad appeal, I would probably keep the number of primary characters through the novel arc to 5. I would say that it is okay to bring in additional characters for a section or chapter, but they should probably disappear after their part is done.

I am not sure what constitutes a character in your count of 40, but I doubt my ability as a reader to remember that many characters and how each contributes to the story. This is especially true if I need to put the book down for several days when life intervenes. Write the story as you feel it should be presented, but consider whether there is real benefit to user to having this many discrete characters or whether many of them could be conglomerated into one.

 

[HareBrain]

Forty seems quite a high number of characters for the reader to keep track of. If you decide to use this many, it might be worth making sure none of them have names that are even slightly similar, e.g. same first letter.

What alphabet are you using over there, Kerry?

 

[alexvss]

There's also the concept of function. There are some side/recurring characters that serve a function, then they vanish from the story. That completes what was said above: don't get too fond of side characters.

All in all, you could also listen to a writing excuses episodes about writing many characters in a single story.

 

[Toby Frost]

One thing to consider is the rule of thumb of 7 +/- 2 items that the human mind can track at once.

That's interesting. I could tell you all the characters in Alien, which has 7 human characters, but not The Thing, which I think has about 12.

 

[Dave]

I was going to say, "when you run out of names" just as a joke, but I've been beaten to the punchline by others.

If you decide to use this many, it might be worth making sure none of them have names that are even slightly similar

consider whether there is real benefit to user to having this many discrete characters or whether many of them could be conglomerated into one.

I've read stories based upon true events that have done both these: either changed character names because it is too confusing for the reader to have two characters with the forename (even though that often happens in real life), or else combined several minor characters together into one fictional person. It does make sense I guess. I have trouble remembering large numbers of characters in a story, but as others have said, the actual number would depend on the size and complexity of the story being told. Forty does seem like a high number.

 

[WatermelonPink]

This is a real "piece of string" question that's got a bunch of effecting factors. Do the new characters lead to a bigger story, or are they simply different PoVs on the existing story (are they even PoVs)? Do they all roughly have the same voice? How many scenes do they get? Etc.etc.

You said series - how many books/words are you thinking?

Overall, however many are needed to tell a long story. It is a story that can't be concluded in just one book and although finishing it in two might be possible, it depends on how much I'm able to cover by the time I reach that point with other ideas I have in mind. As for the characters, I suppose I plan on trying to use all of those that I introduce to what could be their fullest so as to not waste a character. The story is told from a third-person point of view and while it mainly focuses around the MC herself it would occasionally shift to another character depending on their importance to the plot at hand in terms of telling this story. The new characters, who I am still on the fence of introducing, are more meant to introduce greater variety in the world as well as to create a more unpredictable sense of danger while they fill antagonistic roles.

They would expand upon a certain idea introduced in the first book through their own unique ways and would give readers more of an insight into said idea and the possibilities of it.

 

[AlexH]

As someone who struggles with names (and faces when it's a visual medium), my vote always goes to as few as possible! I find it difficult when more than 2 characters are introduced closely together.

 

[Phyrebrat]

I prefer no more than 5 or 6. One reason why I’m no fan of a lot of fantasy is because of the huge cast.

Simple answer: does the story support 40 characters or not? Can any be doubled down on? I’ve recently incorporated 3 distinct characters into 1 in my first novel. The thought of 40 characters is chilling to my simple brain

 

[sknox]

What's a character? Someone who appears only on one page? Someone who doesn't even get a name? Someone who appears in one chapter but never again? Someone who's there throughout but who does little?

Don't worry about the numbers. Numbers add up to nothing, as the poet once said.