Can You Combine Two Characters Into One?
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I was reading a mystery recently, a book that I was enjoying. It was a British police procedural with great, atmospheric settings, interesting characters, and a puzzling murder.
It was also very confusing, although it didn’t start out that way. Starting out, it seemed well-organized with shifts between the POV of the victim’s girlfriend and the POV of the investigating officer.
But suddenly, the reader was introduced to what seemed like the entire police station. Two characters seemed as if they might be sounding boards for the detective. Then there were a couple of others who seemed like bad apples, making the police department look bad. A few others were introduced, as well. All of the characters were named.
If a character is named, I try hard to remember who the character is for the next time he pops up in a scene or is mentioned in dialogue. Chapters went by, however, without the characters being mentioned again.
Then I realized it was a debut novel by the author, although the series is now an established one.
Sure enough, later on it became obvious. Two of the named detectives that returned in future chapters, were just sort of sidekick characters. It wouldn’t have been a problem unless there weren’t many other characters. But there were.
In this instance, I think it would have been helpful for the author or editor to realize the two characters could be combined into one because they played the same role in the story.
This can be done in plenty of other situations. Do you need two close friends for your protagonist? Do you need two neighbors to give perspective on the protagonist’s neighborhood?
It’s tricky for readers, especially in today’s distracting world, to keep up with a large cast. This is just one way to winnow them down.
Do you get lost with too many characters as a reader? How do you address it as a writer?
Combining Characters in Your Story:
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