When you're writing a novel with a large cast (as in over or near a dozen) PoV or primary characters (perhaps a dozen or more), how do you avoid overextending yourself? Additionally, how do you ensure that the characters aren't redundant in their roles or bog down the narrative?
Is this a standalone novel or a series? If the former, it's doubtful that you are going to be able to give each of them a satisfactory story arc unless it's a tome of a book - which isn't going to be traditionally marketable, assuming that's your goal and you're a first-time author. If the latter, you'll have same problem to some extent, but there are more solutions to fix it. I would suggest first trying to cut down that POV list as much as you can. It's better to only have as many POV characters as are actually needed to tell the story so that your reader can spend more time with each of them. This might require you to restructure the plot multiple times before you get it right. I have been working on a Game of Thrones-esque series for the better part of a decade. In the final big redraft of Book 1 I managed to cut the POV list down to just three characters. As someone who found George R.R. Martin's books a bit of slog to get through I knew I didn't want my individual books to run as long as his. Reducing the POV list helped with that. To start with, I picked a central protagonist, Wilhelm, for Book 1. I developed his character arc in full first, being mindful of what else was going on around him, then I plotted his key scenes in a visual timeline. I made sure that Wilhelm's story was solid enough that it could standalone if needed. Next, using the opening and closing image in his timeline as the hard start and end points for the events of Book 1, I wrote a synopsis for each of the other major characters' arcs and figured out from there which ones were distinct enough from Wilhelm's to be worthy of having their own voice, but not so far removed from his that they were irrelevant to the central plot. I weeded out several more characters by asking myself some questions. Who changes the most? Are several characters individual journeys too similar? Do (m)any of these characters stories overlap and if so can I show one of them through one or more other character's perspective? I had this one character, Karl, who certainly appeared worthy of his own POV on paper, but when I looked at how his story aligned with other characters I realised I could show all necessary 'onscreen' events in his arc through Wilhelm and another POV character. What occurs when Karl is on his own doesn't need to be shown in full to make sense. e.g. he isn't present in Act 2 because his arc doesn't overlap with any of the POV characters - but when he returns in Act 3 it is clear that he has undergone a change and not revealing that right-away actually contributes to a major plot twist. His storyline for Books 2 and 3 are just general life developments (marriage, kids, promotion) rather than being a transformative journey, so don't require any focus whatsoever, and when he becomes more important to the central plot again in Book 4 his journey can still be shown through an established POV character - so there is no real need to write any chapters from his perspective at all! In regards to narrative pacing, what I did was think about what needed to be shown versus what could be taking place in the background. When you have multiple POV characters you might feel like you need to show everything, or that you should pick up that character's next chapter exactly where their last chapter left off - but I feel this slows down story momentum. While figuring out chapter order and POV, I also considered what was happening in the background to ensure that the central plot was still moving along at an ideal pace. Other major (inc. POV) characters lives didn't just stop because we weren't seeing them play out. By figuring out what to keep in the foreground and what to push into the background, I was able to greatly strengthen (and condense) the story. I mentioned above that I did this with Karl's character in Act 2 of Book 1. This one only works if you're writing a series, but I found shifting some of my POV characters to later books was also useful. I managed to do this with three major characters when I realised that it wasn't necessary to show their environments and story too early. It was important to the series as a whole, but in Book 1 it was more or less just setup and character development rather than plot development so there was no need for them to be POV characters too soon. They become relevant to the central plot in Book 2 and 3, so I delayed starting their stories until then. 2/3 of those characters do still appear in Book 1, because there are scenes it makes sense for them to be present in, but I didn't focus on them. That's something new and exciting for the reader to dive into later. Similarly, I demote POV characters once they have served their purpose so that they aren't there just for the sake of being there and taking up valuable space. For more general advice, keep a character bible when dealing with large casts. Make notes about major and supporting characters, their relations, their locations, their purposes, etc. Because I'm writing I series I also have a short summary of what each character is doing in each book. This is separate from the longer synopses I write for major characters per book. That was long-winded. Imagine how long it would have been if I talked about all three of my Book 1 POV characters and why I chose each of them, and the reasons why I didn't pick a half dozen other seemingly worthy characters to give a voice to. I used Wilhelm and Karl because I felt they were the best examples: Wilhelm as the character I built the first book around, and Karl as an example of a character who I thought required his own POV but ultimately did not.
This is of interest to me. The middle story of my WIP trilogy has a large cast, of about 20-25 characters. The following helped (whether they were successful isn't for me to say):- - I went out and found TF Powys' novel 'Unclay', which for most of its length tells each chapter from a totally new POV. [NB: Unclay has some NSFL content] - in my WIP only the MC matters - there's a big drop-off between the MC and the others whose arcs are all simple (but not to the point of being arcless, minor characters) - they're tightly interconnected: a community of characters jointly-experiencing a few central events - they're told in logical sequence, e.g. it's easier to follow when the pov changes to a character the others were just talking about - most of them are parodic or larger-than-life which makes it easier to distinguish - careful naming and descriptions so that none of them are too confusable - minimalist storyworld so that more of the effort can go into establishing the character relationships which are the reader's handholds to the story - narrative viewpoint is always kept moving between 2nd/3rd/3rd-omni, to gradually train the reader that the pov is also a storytelling tool and somewhat fluid
For some context to my post, I've been working on an outline of mine for a horror anthology series. The premise of my work pertains to families fighting against malevolent paranormal forces targeting them. As of now, I've come up with at least 5 concepts for installments in the series. Most of them contain pretty large casts, with one having as many as a dozen characters.
I have never really ever written with a large cast. But when I did I found it was very important to make sure each character had a purpose throughout the novel (or right until their exit) They needed to help move the plot along. Some characters I discovered I could combine. And that a character shouldn't just be there to outline the main character because that's when they get labelled as "just the romantic interest", they always need to do more than prop up the main character. Otherwise I just planned them the same way and made sure they all fit around each other.
My current WIP has around a dozen main characters and antagonists, a main story arc with four other threads weaving through it all. Not all the main characters have a POV, but even if they did it shouldn't matter, as long as the POV is well established. As for redundant characters, that's what editing is for. If they are redundant, cut them and tighten it up. Put them in a mental box for later use if you are attached to them, characters can always be reworked and recycled. Same goes with those story threads, make sure they're wrapped up and needed, if not, chop them out.
