Book/Novel Characters?

Question

How many characters are too much for a book? Is 12-14 good? Thanks

Answer 1

There's no set amount... have as many characters as you want! :D

Answer 2

depends on how complex you want the story to be.

usually it's safe to go with 5 main characters and up to 10 side characters.

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Answer 3

It depends on your writing and the story. J.K. Rowling can get away with 50+ characters because she is good at breathing personality into the most minor of roles and the story is thick enough to sustain them all.

On the other hand, other writers like to keep it simple with only a handful of well done characters in a tight-knit plot most likely focusing on relationships between the few characters.

The lower the number of characters, the easier it is to focus on relationships and the higher the number the more explosive the plot.

I generally settle for either 2-4 or 6-13 depending on the length of the story and the type of plot I'm going for.

If you aren't sure how many characters can fit into your story, I'd advise that you have someone read it and then recite as many character names as they can remember as well as at least one of each character's traits. If they struggle to recall characters, then you have too many and probably need to cut back a few. Also, consider each character's role in the storyline. If they don't fulfill a real role or if their role could be filled by another character, then you should probably can them because they are just taking up room in your plot.

Answer 4

It depends if those 12-14 characters are the main characters. You should really only have 6 max main characters. If they are just background characters that only pop up in the book a few times, it should be fine to have 14 characters. You just can't make it too confusing for the reader and 14 characters that are main features of the novel is just a bit too many.

Hope that helps. :)