McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Character Question (and PS hello)

(1/4) > >>

arianne:
Uh, hi to everyone.

I'm new to both the Dresden files and to the forum, but I've lurked here for a while, and I've read like 7 Dresden books in the past week, so hopefully I should be able to keep up.  ;D

I have a bit of a character question, and it's this: is it a bad thing to have too many characters?

I'll try to keep things vague so that I don't violate any forum rules. Basically, my hero guy is a normal guy who is dragged into a magical world. There are 4 or 5 magical people who work as a team to get him into the magical world, and then the hero guy has 4 family members he's really close to, and who fill important roles in the story later.

So that would be like 10 characters in the space of the first three chapters.

I'm worried that the reader might be distracted by some many names. But on the other hand, I've already cut a bunch of characters and I don't know if it's possible for me to cut out any more ???

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Aakaakaak:
IMO, don't cut any more characters. Bring the ones you have out more slowly to let people get used to them. You can classify "a group" of people, and people will associate with it. Then slowly bring out the individual characters over time.

arianne:
Um...little hard to bring the characters out over time.

The first bit is kind of intense, where the 4 or 5 magic people are responding to a call from their "boss", and they're each doing it in their own personal way. So they're kind of brought out right there.

And then the scene with the hero guy and his family is over a family dinner sort of thing where I *try* to show his relationship to each one, and sort of foreshadowing (hopefully) which of them will come after him when the magic guys come get him.

Which is like intense character portraits in three chapters.

I'm beginning to think this might be messy...

Aakaakaak:
I would agree. Sounds sort of messy for the beginning of a story. It doesn't sound like you're following a traditional story arc.

belial.1980:
I recommend strong use of character tags--traits, features, or habits that make a character stand out. Use 'em and wave 'em often. Jenny blinks her blue eys or fusses with her curly blond hair almost every time you shine a light on her. Jake digs in his greasy nails with an old knife. Sam swallows nervously every time he speaks, and it makes his huge Adam's apple bob up and down. Etc. These aren't the most interesting examples, but I'm sure you get the point.

Characters will come into their own given time, but tags breathe life into them and help the readers keep them straight in the beginning. Hope this helps. Good luck!

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page