Another writing question. Well, more of a insecure writer question. 

How important is an original plot/premise/concept to the novel?

Or is it more about the characters and the wording and so on?

Let's say I had an idea for a female wizard living in, um, New York. And the wizard was totally different from that other Barry/Larry guy  . You know, the sarcastic dude with the skull in his basement.

Let's say my wizard was sweet, kind, caring, timid, never sarcastic. She has no pets, lives in a huge penthouse with a pool in the backyard.She calls her mom twice a week, hates fast food and soda.  Whatever. Like anti-Barry.

And then I give this wizard a bunch of pals like supersexy cop dude who loves her, dates her, and wants to marry her; couple of sisters; vampire buddies. Again, anti-Barry.

So then I write this whole book about this wizard and how she solves a mass vampire killing.

(Don't worry, I didn't actually have the idea to write this, it's just an example. In case Jim's lawyer and agent happen to be around...I am not stealing his wizard. Relax.  )

If I were to write said story, what would your opinion be of that story? Would it be, um, marketable? Is it a bad thing to lack originality in a plot?

I know the above was kind of an extreme example, but how about if one was writing a vampire novel or something of the sort? It's hard to step outside a genre entirely and be completely original.

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...

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. 

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!