9 Tips for Crafting A Large (And Well-Developed) Cast of Characters
On the last #ChatWithHannah video, I was asked about creating a large cast of characters. I found myself wanting to really delve into the topic because it's one that has always fascinated me.
As somebody who struggles to remember the names of classmates or differentiate between people I meet randomly throughout the week (yes, I am a terrible person and I'm sorry), it's always been funny to me that I can create and maintain large casts of characters without much issue. How is this possible?
Well, apparently my brain has come up with all sorts of tips and tricks that I didn't realize existed until I started thinking about it. What are these tips and how can you use them? I'm glad you asked:
1. Decide on main characters or POV characters. Can you have a book with 20+ characters? Yes. Can you have a book with 20+ main characters or POV characters? Maybe if you wanted to explode your brain, sure. To avoid damage to your neurons, ask yourself: Who's story is this? Figure out which of your characters is the main character. If you're telling the story from one POV or multiple, decide which characters get to be POV characters. These are the ones that will get the most on-page development throughout the story. They are the focus. That being said...
2. Feel free to develop and give backstories to all of your characters. Yep. All of them. Figure out where they came from, what drives them, who they like, who they don't like, what their habits and quirks are. However, keep in mind that not all of this information will go into the book. It's just for you. It will help you differentiate between all of your characters and also give them a richness that wouldn't be there if you didn't have any information on them at all.
3. Decide what info goes into the book and what just stays in your brain. Obviously, you can't include every character's backstory. Heck, you probably won't be able to spill all the details of your main characters, either. So ask yourself: Of all of this backstory and development, how much of it matters to the main character(s)? How much of it matters to the plot? If the information isn't necessary to developing the main characters or the plot, it probably shouldn't go in. Unless it helps with world building. But even then: If the world building doesn't connect to the plot or characters in any constructive way, then it may not need to be there.
4. Keep character profiles. Yep. For each character keep a page that includes things like: Their fears, their strengths, their goals, their connection to the main character, and their connection to the plot. You can also include MBTI personality types and the like if that kind of thing helps you. Pinterest boards are good, too. This is something that I use for select characters. Because I have four POV characters (and because they're all very different), I kept track of them using character profiling so that when I needed to slip into their mindset, I could simply look through their document and Pinterest board to remember who exactly they are. After writing from their POVs enough times, this became unnecessary, but it was very helpful for starting out (and will be helpful when I go back to edit).
5. Check for extraneous characters. Having a large cast of characters is fine, but there is such a thing as too large. There's no set number that, when surpassed, is too large (don't ever let somebody tell you that there is). Rather than a number, it's a symptom. This symptom shows itself in shallow characters or characters that don't serve a purpose in the story (or serve the same purpose as another character). So go over your cast and ask: Do all of these characters have a unique purpose and perspective on the story? Or are they just ill-disguised duplicates of each other? If the answer is no to the first question and yes to the second, well, you'll have to send somebody packing.
OR you could merge a few extraneous characters into a single necessary character (yes, this does happen...I know one writer who merged 3 characters into one upon realizing that 2 of the characters were largely unnecessary).
6. Remember that villains are part of the cast, too. Often writers spend a lot of time developing the protagonists and their friends, but not the villain. Why would you do this? The villain is important to the story (just as much so as the hero), so make sure that you develop him/her as much as you develop the others.
7. Don't forget the character arcs. For all of them? Yes. But remember: There are different types of character arcs. Positive character arcs (where the characters triumph or change for the better), negative character arcs (where the characters lose or change for the worse), and flat character arcs. Okay, I made that last term up, but I'm referring to the writing of a flat character. Flat characters are not, in fact, always a bad thing...they're just characters that don't change over the course of the story. Think Indiana Jones, Lady Catherine de Burgh (if you didn't read that in Mr. Collin's voice then you're failing at life), Argus Filch, a lot of side characters in Shakespeare's work, etc. The larger your cast, the more necessary it is to have a mix of all of these character arcs. Your main and secondary characters will have the largest arcs while tertiary characters (no, I actually didn't make that term up...it's a real thing. Look it up) will have smaller arcs.
8. Take notes as you write. The larger your cast, the harder it is to keep track of everyone. Even if you have character profiles, your characters will change slightly (or hugely) throughout the story due to character arcs. So at the end of each scene where a change happens to a character: Take note of what's happened. That way the next time you go back to write that character you can remember where he/she is plot-wise, emotion-wise, and even health-wish. There's nothing more embarrassing that having a character stabbed in the leg in chapter 8 only to have her miraculously healthy in chapter 10. Yes, I've done that before. Spare yourself the pain.
9. Give them tags. This is for your own sanity as well as your readers. Give each of your characters at least one tag that differentiates him/her from the others. It can be a word they use all the time, a hand gesture, an article clothing, eye color. Check out this post on character tags, then apply it to your characters to help you keep all your characters separate in your own mind as well as your readers.
Oh, and bonus tip: Read books and watch movies with huge casts of characters: Harry Potter, LOTR, The Prydain Chronicles, PandoraHearts, Star Wars, the Avengers. There are tons, so study how each character is unique and how each is portrayed. This is super helpful and also gives you an excuse to have a Star Wars marathon....Not that you ever need an excuse, but still.
How large is your current cast of characters? The Stump of the Terebinth Tree has a grand total of 4 main(ish) characters, 4 secondary characters, 10 tertiary characters, and 5 quaternary characters (okay, you caught me...I did make up that last one). Sooo I have...*scrunches up face* *does math* *almost dies* 23 characters. Decent sized cast, but not nearly as big as some.
I'd love to hear about the tips that you have for keeping track of your large cast of characters!
Related articles:
Character Tags: What They Are and How to Use Them
7 Tips for Choosing Your Character's AppearanceWriting Dialogue: What You're Doing Wrong (And How to Fix It)
Enjoy this post? Take a look around. If you like what you see, please don't forget to subscribe by email for a new post every Friday!
Some links are Amazon affiliate. Thank you for your support.
As somebody who struggles to remember the names of classmates or differentiate between people I meet randomly throughout the week (yes, I am a terrible person and I'm sorry), it's always been funny to me that I can create and maintain large casts of characters without much issue. How is this possible?
Well, apparently my brain has come up with all sorts of tips and tricks that I didn't realize existed until I started thinking about it. What are these tips and how can you use them? I'm glad you asked:
1. Decide on main characters or POV characters. Can you have a book with 20+ characters? Yes. Can you have a book with 20+ main characters or POV characters? Maybe if you wanted to explode your brain, sure. To avoid damage to your neurons, ask yourself: Who's story is this? Figure out which of your characters is the main character. If you're telling the story from one POV or multiple, decide which characters get to be POV characters. These are the ones that will get the most on-page development throughout the story. They are the focus. That being said...2. Feel free to develop and give backstories to all of your characters. Yep. All of them. Figure out where they came from, what drives them, who they like, who they don't like, what their habits and quirks are. However, keep in mind that not all of this information will go into the book. It's just for you. It will help you differentiate between all of your characters and also give them a richness that wouldn't be there if you didn't have any information on them at all.
3. Decide what info goes into the book and what just stays in your brain. Obviously, you can't include every character's backstory. Heck, you probably won't be able to spill all the details of your main characters, either. So ask yourself: Of all of this backstory and development, how much of it matters to the main character(s)? How much of it matters to the plot? If the information isn't necessary to developing the main characters or the plot, it probably shouldn't go in. Unless it helps with world building. But even then: If the world building doesn't connect to the plot or characters in any constructive way, then it may not need to be there.
4. Keep character profiles. Yep. For each character keep a page that includes things like: Their fears, their strengths, their goals, their connection to the main character, and their connection to the plot. You can also include MBTI personality types and the like if that kind of thing helps you. Pinterest boards are good, too. This is something that I use for select characters. Because I have four POV characters (and because they're all very different), I kept track of them using character profiling so that when I needed to slip into their mindset, I could simply look through their document and Pinterest board to remember who exactly they are. After writing from their POVs enough times, this became unnecessary, but it was very helpful for starting out (and will be helpful when I go back to edit).
5. Check for extraneous characters. Having a large cast of characters is fine, but there is such a thing as too large. There's no set number that, when surpassed, is too large (don't ever let somebody tell you that there is). Rather than a number, it's a symptom. This symptom shows itself in shallow characters or characters that don't serve a purpose in the story (or serve the same purpose as another character). So go over your cast and ask: Do all of these characters have a unique purpose and perspective on the story? Or are they just ill-disguised duplicates of each other? If the answer is no to the first question and yes to the second, well, you'll have to send somebody packing.
OR you could merge a few extraneous characters into a single necessary character (yes, this does happen...I know one writer who merged 3 characters into one upon realizing that 2 of the characters were largely unnecessary).6. Remember that villains are part of the cast, too. Often writers spend a lot of time developing the protagonists and their friends, but not the villain. Why would you do this? The villain is important to the story (just as much so as the hero), so make sure that you develop him/her as much as you develop the others.
7. Don't forget the character arcs. For all of them? Yes. But remember: There are different types of character arcs. Positive character arcs (where the characters triumph or change for the better), negative character arcs (where the characters lose or change for the worse), and flat character arcs. Okay, I made that last term up, but I'm referring to the writing of a flat character. Flat characters are not, in fact, always a bad thing...they're just characters that don't change over the course of the story. Think Indiana Jones, Lady Catherine de Burgh (if you didn't read that in Mr. Collin's voice then you're failing at life), Argus Filch, a lot of side characters in Shakespeare's work, etc. The larger your cast, the more necessary it is to have a mix of all of these character arcs. Your main and secondary characters will have the largest arcs while tertiary characters (no, I actually didn't make that term up...it's a real thing. Look it up) will have smaller arcs.
8. Take notes as you write. The larger your cast, the harder it is to keep track of everyone. Even if you have character profiles, your characters will change slightly (or hugely) throughout the story due to character arcs. So at the end of each scene where a change happens to a character: Take note of what's happened. That way the next time you go back to write that character you can remember where he/she is plot-wise, emotion-wise, and even health-wish. There's nothing more embarrassing that having a character stabbed in the leg in chapter 8 only to have her miraculously healthy in chapter 10. Yes, I've done that before. Spare yourself the pain.
9. Give them tags. This is for your own sanity as well as your readers. Give each of your characters at least one tag that differentiates him/her from the others. It can be a word they use all the time, a hand gesture, an article clothing, eye color. Check out this post on character tags, then apply it to your characters to help you keep all your characters separate in your own mind as well as your readers.
Oh, and bonus tip: Read books and watch movies with huge casts of characters: Harry Potter, LOTR, The Prydain Chronicles, PandoraHearts, Star Wars, the Avengers. There are tons, so study how each character is unique and how each is portrayed. This is super helpful and also gives you an excuse to have a Star Wars marathon....Not that you ever need an excuse, but still.
How large is your current cast of characters? The Stump of the Terebinth Tree has a grand total of 4 main(ish) characters, 4 secondary characters, 10 tertiary characters, and 5 quaternary characters (okay, you caught me...I did make up that last one). Sooo I have...*scrunches up face* *does math* *almost dies* 23 characters. Decent sized cast, but not nearly as big as some.
I'd love to hear about the tips that you have for keeping track of your large cast of characters!
Related articles:
Character Tags: What They Are and How to Use Them
7 Tips for Choosing Your Character's AppearanceWriting Dialogue: What You're Doing Wrong (And How to Fix It)
Enjoy this post? Take a look around. If you like what you see, please don't forget to subscribe by email for a new post every Friday!
Some links are Amazon affiliate. Thank you for your support.
No comments have been added yet.
