Characters

Too many characters, or not enough? I do still hope to finish my novelette before the end of the weekend, but I’ve already identified a couple of issues that I need to work on in the next draft. One of them is the supporting cast.

Initially I started with one main character and two assistant characters. In the first draft, I thought a large organization should have more than just one person resisting, so I gave my main character two equal peers. However, with two peers, I found I had less need of the two assistants. But because it’s an organization, I want to represent all levels. So I’m wrestling with how many characters I really need to have and how to best use them.

In addition, this is supposed to be a magical bureaucracy, yet there is very little detail about how they do their magic and what the source for it is. For that matter, there isn’t much on the physical appearance and atmosphere of the Department. This is really important in fantasy, to have something unique and interesting in the magic. Sparkling, if you will.

So those are two of the factors I’m trying to work my way through as I move toward the next draft.

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