Population Explosion: Filling Your Story With Too Many Characters
I once read a manuscript for an aspiring writer who introduced 40 characters in the first three chapters. She wasn’t happy when my critique suggested she pare down the number of characters she named. She felt my suggestion, if she followed it, would ruin the story because all these characters were part of the story. Not really. She had named and described every character as they appeared in her story. Giving a name, description, and back story to Mary Jane the cashier who appears on page two because the protagonist is buying groceries and she’s his cashier doesn’t bequeath name status on Mary Jane. She need to be “the cashier.” Bombarding the reader with a sports arena full of named characters is no way to build a bond between the main characters of your story and the reader. In most stories there are characters who need to be named and those who don’t. Minor characters who exist to people your story world can be identified by their job, their hair color, ...