HOW MANY CHARACTERS DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE A STORY?

I wonder how many authors have considered this subject? One of the reasons I bring up the topic is my current read is Mythos by Stephen Fry. The book is a retelling of the myths of Ancient Greece. There are a lot of characters in it. It is absolutely impossible to remember all the names, but somehow it works because you are so familiar with all of the characters.

It also works in epics like Lord of the Rings J. R. R. Tolkien and Game of Thrones George R. R. Martin. (Is the R. R. a coincidence? I should Google it) For some reason these, and I am sure many other stories, work. This prompted thoughts of how we deal with numbers of characters in other novels.

Have you come across the problem in your writing, or indeed in books you read? As a reader or writer, how do you feel about large numbers of characters in a story?

I remember reading a new script, that came into the office. We liked the story because its love theme was seen through the eyes of older women. The downside was the numbers of characters; so many of them were incidental characters who didn’t drive the plot forward. Yet they had names and dialogue and extended bulky scenes. We had several production meetings and chats with the author during the eighteen months of editing. It was agreed to dramatically cut the non-productive peripheral characters and text, from what we felt was a clever story.

When reading, have you ever wished the editor’s knife had cut a bit deeper?

As a writer have you ever fought to keep that special scene in?

If you have anything you would like to add or share, I’d love to hear your comments here on the blog, the BVS Facebook page, or my Facebook page. We have a twitter page too, and we are always happy to follow people that follow us.