How Many Characters Should A Series Have?

[Power]

So, I tend to be good at world building (usually better than I am at actual writing), so I have gone very deep into the history of my would. I have created close to 200 characters. About 111 of those are just characters in the past (kings, queens, princes, princesses, important people throughout history, and a lot of not so important people.), but I still have around 84 characters from the past three generations that might play important roles in my series. Is this a bad thing?

You will love what you spend time with.

[Trahia the Minstrel]

@power

It sounds like you’re writing epic fantasy — correct if I’m wrong — but if so having a larger cast isn’t bad. Read Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series if you want to see a huge cast handled magnificently.

However, I would probably recommend that you keep the number of main protagonists to 3 or at the max 5 — just remember that every time you switch POV character, the reader has to readjust and put themselves in a new emotional space of whoever this new character is. That said, if you do it skilfully, and give us reasons to care about and like each of your main characters, you can maybe push the number even further.

A great tip with large casts is to end each POV character’s chapter/section/scene on a cliffhanger. That way the reader won’t lose interest in their story, even while reading the others.

That’s just protagonists. You’ll probably have friend groups for each protagonist, too, right? I’ve actually done this in my own book, where I have two main protagonists, and each one has their own friend/ally group which has anywhere from 6-30 people. So I am used to writing fairly large-cast stories.

In my story, I have come to accept the fact that in the larger group (the one that has 30), I will not be able to give each person in that group a major role. So I choose five people in that group to represent various aspects of it, and gave them each their own personalities. Most of them are side characters, but the Captain of the group is a main secondary character, and is my protagonist’s mentor. So he has a much more fleshed-out character arc and complicated backstory.

In the other group (the one with 7, including the protagonist), I gave each character their own personality and quirk, and reason why they were essential to the group. I had a beta reader who said she found it a little hard at first to keep track of who everyone was, but this quickly faded. Giving a character a quirk, or a specific way of speaking, is a great way to help the reader remember who they are.

On top of my two good guy groups, I also have: Both protagonists’ families. The side characters’s families. The army commanders. A whole group of Marauders, a few of whom are significant characters. A whole cast of characters in the nearby desert kingdom, most of whom have important roles. And two wild card girls — a spy and a minstrel.

So I get where you’re coming from, Power. I probably have about 80 significant characters too, not that I’ve ever actually counted them.😅

As I said, if you want to see this done really well, please read Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive. He takes it a step further, and actually has a group of about 30, all of whom have different personalities and we actually care about them. His cast is huge, and it’s handled with such excellence.

Anyway, is having around 80 significant characters bad? Not at all, provided that you focus on a handful, 1-7, generally, as your protagonists, a slightly larger group as main secondary characters (about 10-20 generally), and all the others who are there play important roles and are integral to the story. I think that’s the most important thing.

Each and every character your protagonists interact with must be integral to the story in some way. Even if that way is just to provide new information to move the plot along, or maybe it’s to give insight on someone’s backstory … making the reader wonder if that friend is as honest as they thought.

You can have so much fun with large casts, if you’re able to weave them all together in your series skilfully!

I applaud you for having the courage to try! Go epic writers! Your story sounds awesome!

The end of a story, a beautiful picture; a feeling of longing yet hope~
That’s my wish to create.

[GodlyFantasy12]

@power WOW!!! That’s incredible!! I do NOT have the patience for that heh. At all…but as for MC’s, I agree with @trahia-the-minstrel, though I’ve come to learn that it’s your book, your story, your series, etc. Do what you want with it! Wether it becomes famous or not that’s not what matters. What matters is if YOU’RE happy/proud of it!! What’s the point of it selling out if you don’t even enjoy it???

That being said, my series has 7 MC’s, and an animal character that may or may not have a POV Chapter here and there. but, they don’t all come on the scene at one time (the way i’m working it) but you can have them all introduced if you want, whatever you want.

The way I’m doing mine is in book one my first 2-3 are introduced, book 2 another is introduced along with maybe a chapter or 2 from the animal character. Book 3 another is introduced and so on until book 5 where the last POV character is introduced into the series.

That’s just how I’m personally working it. So as you can see I’m good with having a large cast of POV characters in a series lol but just so long as it doesn’t get too overwhelming. now… 10-12….might be stretching it (as POV characters, not side characters counting, just look at the Wingfeather saga lol.)

Also, there’s books out there with only 2 or 1 person POVs but with MANY other characters but it honestly doesn’t feel like it’s in one person’s POV. Or they’re head-hopping because they do it well.

For instance my FAV series is Kingdom keepers by Ridley Pearson (some may not like it or may find the head-hopping jarring but I love it tho the technical things do get bogging sometimes).

Another example of a huge cast of characters and huge world building like yours is The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings which has an ENORMOUS cast of characters but, IMO, while it’s not my cup of tea (book wise, I love the hobbit move series) the POV doesn’t even seem like multiple POVs even tho there’s such a huge cast of characters.

Anyway just some things to think about (: hope this helps!!

#IfMarcelDiesIRiot
#ProtectMarcel
#ProtectSeb

[Power]

@trahia-the-minstrel

Thanks for the reassurance. Yes, it’s epic fantasy. I have listened to some of Brandon Sanderson’s stuff, and he does do well writing larger groups.

I have around 4-8 “important” characters, and maybe 2 main characters. The cliffhanger advice is good, thanks!

@godlyfantasy12

An animal character! All of my characters are animals! So what kind of animal is your animal character?

I’m thinking, perhaps, I’ll write my first book from main character 1’s POV, and throw in a POV from some of the important characters here and there. Then in book two, write from character 2’s POV, and throw in POVs like I did in book one. After that, I might write some novellas about historical figures, and some side characters back story. . . This is if I actually sit down and write book one. As stated in my post, I am a whole lot better at world building than at actual writing the world I built. I might write a novella or two, so that I get into the world, before I write book one.

You will love what you spend time with.

[Madelyn]

@power

Hey!!

Large casts of characters can totally work, and add a lot of depth to the story! The first book that comes to mind is the Silmarillion (which, if you’re a fan of complicated world-building, it’s a MUST READ). I honestly cannot remember HOW many characters are in that book (it is a fictional history book that spans hundreds–or thousands?–of years after all).

Something I found VERY helpful, though, was a character/place guide in the back (since a lot of the names were very similar and I couldn’t remember who was related to whom). I was constantly referring back to it 🙂 I’ve also seen a similar guide in some modern books, so that’s something to consider if you have a large cast of characters! (I think I’ve seen it in the front of the book too, which helps because then the reader knows that it’s there to reference 😉 )

All in all, I think it’s an awesome idea!! I LOVE books that include complicated world-building, history, and the like, so you’re got my vote on this one!

Happy writing!

~In Christ Alone My Hope Is Found~

[GodlyFantasy12]

@power it’s a fennec fox type creature!!

#IfMarcelDiesIRiot
#ProtectMarcel
#ProtectSeb

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