Case in point. I wouldn't consider Dany the "main" character, although she is clearly a principle character in the books. There are several main characters in A Song Of Ice And Fire, and you get to know them all intricately without any loss of focus on the plight of each individual.
I'm generalising here, but: although novels can have more than one lead character, it's 'normal' to have one, especially if the book isn't split into 'parts', 'books', time frames, etc. The lead character may or may not be the main point of view (POV) character. This character tends to have a foil--an antagonist, romantic interest, etc. Sometimes they have developed sidekicks, confidantes etc but not always. For a novel under 70,000 words, 2-3 well developed characters is generally enough, from what I have observed. I don't think that there are usually more than 5-6 in-depth characters even in a long novel. I do not often read fantasy and prefer 'literary' and historical fiction, so my observations may be biased toward the norms of these genres, of course.
I have a story with to main charaters and the story couldn't be done without each other. Infact most romantic novels need two or more main charaters. Like Romeo and Juliet, who would you call the mc? I would say both of them are. And Romance isn't the only genre that can have more then one main charater. Like the book Dark Life by Kat Falls, most people would say at the begining that the narrator of the story named Ty is the mc but really the girl he meets named Gemma is also like a main charater. I consider them both mc's. The fact that many books revolve around one Charater is because its so easy. I suggest you should go with as many main charaters as you want.
Let's just say having over 9000 main characters is just few too many. Probably. You can have as many protagonists as you want, as long as each has some crucial role or struggle in the story.
You can't put a number on it, but usually you only have 2 and the others are side-plots(which is good). So main characters you have 2. Developed characters any that have a purpose.
2 Main characters is the most common number. It's not likely to be any higher then that, most of them will fall as a supporting character.
Okay--try looking at a few blurbs on the back of books. I've just picked a few at random: One Day "Emma and Dexter..." Grace Notes "...Bernard Mac Laverty brings us into the life of Catherine McKenna..." The Sugar House "The year is 1920. Clara Batchelor...is now twenty-one..." The Loop "Helen Ross...is sent to a sleepy Rocky Mountain ranching town to defend a pack of wolves..." ...The first with two equally important MCs, the others with one. As I said, also, the lead/main character may not always be the POV character. In some books, the POV is first person, for example, and s/he takes a back seat and views a drama played out by other characters. BTW, I don't mean there are only 2-3 characters in the novel, just that there are only 2-3 fully explored, in-depth ones. Perhaps in genres where character gives way to plot, the number of characters can be more--but even then, there still tends to be one MC more often than not. Actually, IMO, not having a few strong and believable MCs is the weakness of much drawn-out fantasy stuff. Maybe because creating a fully-fleshed character to carry the action of a whole novel is certainly NOT 'easy'!
oh I loved Needful Things - didn't have a problem following all the storylines as they weaved in and out at all.... The Stand is another King book with multiple main characters. I think you can have as many main characters as you like as long as you write them well and don't lose your reader. I'd say that the more main characters you have the longer your story will be to fit them all in though.. and no one wants to read the phone book so don't go overboard. Blue
Five does seem like a lot of main characters, but why don't you try doing this: You could start out with two or three main characters, and then "get rid" of one of them later in your story for specified amount of time and bring him back in later on, while introducing another character during a different part of your story, and so on. This way, you could introduce all the characters that you want to without introducing them all at once.
I think focusing on the word "main" misses the point. People have a general understanding of what is meant by MC or main character, and the semantic argument about limiting the person's intent in using MC due to the word main doesn't really get to the underlying question. In addition, with changes in POV, and depending on the significance of the change, etc. a different character may, at any given time, take on the role as "main" for the moment. I've read plenty of books, mostly in fantasy, that have four or five MCs, or more. If you are writing a Fantasy, I think you're well within the bounds of what is out there and what readers expectations are. Science fiction as well. If you're outside of those areas, it might be a good idea to take a look around at similar novels and see if any of them do it. Of course, that shouldn't limit you in either regard, so long as you execute it well, but it will at least give you an idea of the landscape and therefore of reader expectations (and maybe publisher expectations as well).
