Hi everyone, Long-time reader, first-time poster. I am midway through the first draft of an adventure story (I refuse to call it a book as it might never be one!), and I am wondering if I've taken on more than I can chew with my characters. In a nutshell, my story follows six youngsters on a Goonies-style quest. Developing that many central characters is going to be tough, but the thing is, there has to be six of them. It's essential to the plot. Despite that, I'm wondering if I might end up with half a dozen under-cooked leads who the reader won't connect with simply because there isn't enough scope to develop them within the limited word count of a story aimed at 10-14 year-olds. Shall I just plough on and see how things look at the end of the draft? Should I cull two of the characters now? Do I need to re-think my plot? Does anyone have any tips or advice at all on developing that many central characters? Any advice anyone in this brilliant community could offer would be much appreciated! Many thanks
Welcome to the site! My Doctor Who fanfic has two groups of 4 protagonists each, the cult classic show Firefly has 9 lead protagonists, and George RR Martin has collected 31 POV (point of view) characters over the course of his series Even in a smaller work, making 6 lead protagonists could definitely be do-able, but even if you don't think you'd be able to pull it off, 3 lead protagonists + 3 secondary protagonists could still work very well Or 4 lead + 2 secondary, or 2 lead + 4 secondary... That's how it works in the larger stories (some protagonists are the leads, others are more secondary), and that's how you'd have the best chance at scaling down the same idea for something smaller. Which of your 6 do you think would work best as lead protagonists? Which ones do you think would work best as secondaries?
I did about fifteen characters in my work, and it worked out well, though at the time, like you, I had doubts about pulling it off. Make sure they have strengths and weaknesses, something to develop or change their characters. I had two characters that I felt were going nowhere in my first, so I dropped one off in his hometown in China to take care of his aging mother, reunited after ten years, and another rode off into the sunset with the warrior woman he had been with the past year. But I am doing the sequel now, and the drop off, the warrior woman and her mate are coming back as major role-players ten years later, along with everyone else except the Buddhist monk (so far). Mithridates, the Parthian envoy to China and scoundrel in the first book, is returning as the historical father of Sanatruces, who led the insurrection against the Romans after they invaded Mesopotamia (Iraq) in 115AD. Mithridates is also the historical brother to King Osroes, and will very shortly in the course of the book become King Mithridates IV. So my fictional character in the Eagle and the Dragon, to my great surprise, has become an actual historical character, playing a MAJOR role in the sequel. So yea, multiple characters is manageable. Trust your gut! Granted, E&D did not have your word count limit, but go see where the story takes you.
It depends. Six can be a lot if they each have a POV and you have to manufacture scenes to justify their existence. But if they're all together on a "quest" as you say, then you won't need to switch POVs as often. And not all of them need to be leads that require intensive character development. You'd be shocked at how quickly secondary characters can develop when the don't have to do a lot of heavy lifting. MCs, on the other hand, have longer arcs and have to carry the reader through the story, so I've generally found that it's better to limit those to one or two.
Agreed. When it comes to ensemble casts, try to keep in mind whose story/stories you're really trying to tell. More than likely, those are your POVs while everyone else plays a supporting role.
I would think if you gave them nicknames that somehow fit their description I remember Dick Tracy and all the names years later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dick_Tracy_characters
The number of characters isn't ever the issue. The issue is when characters take on the same role within the story. If everyone in the story is always equipped with a witty comeback and sarcastic wit, then yes, all you'll have is a few under-cooked heroes no one cares about. If there's no differences in opinion or various levels of bravery and such, then yes, they will come off as under-developed.
Thanks to everyone for taking the time to reply. There's some great advice here, which makes me think I'm okay to proceed. I have one lead character, with two others I would call primary and the other three as secondaries (one who doesn't talk at all). I'll keep plugging away and see where it takes me. I'm at the 19,000-word mark so about halfway...
I actually just remembered that the Animorphs books had 6 protagonists for the majority of the run Would you say that an Animorphs book is roughly comparable to the target length and age that you're aiming at?
(assuming you mean 10-14 like the OP mentioned) You'd be shocked. They might not be able to diagnose the problem exactly, but they'll know something is wrong.
