Who's that? Characters in a Novel.

[Paul Whybrow]

I'm nearing the end of my WIP, a second novel in what looks like becoming a series of psychological thrillers about a Cornish detective.

I'm being assisted in the process of creation by the services of a beta-reader, who's noticed things I've overlooked. She commented that she was a bit confused about who was who with the characters early on, which gave me pause for thought as I try to differentiate my protagonists with names that suggest their nature. Thus, my protagonist Inspector Neil Kettle is deferential while building up a head of steam as he comes to the boil. Retired detective Roger Rule is always trying to screw something out of people and has a distant autocratic manner from having been in command.

I decided that part of the problem for my beta-reader was that she received the novel in sections of two chapters by email, and this made it awkward for her to flip back to check who people are—as we tend to do with complicated stories we're settling into. All the same, I wondered if I needed to have a Cast of Characters at the beginning of the story. This is a common feature of episodic sagas of family history sprawled over the ages and long fantasy epics, which have 50+ characters.

My 80,000-word crime novel has about a 20 named characters, with 20 minor players who feature in only one scene and pass through without being named. I know who everyone is, but I've been living in this dream world for the last seven months!

Do any other members of the Colony use a Cast of Characters as a helpful feature of their novel?

 

[Nicole Wilson]

I have not used a list of characters at the beginning of my books. What I've found helpful is to only name characters that play a significant role in the book. Not necessarily just major characters, but, usually unless they have more than one scene, I'll keep background characters unnamed. This helps readers because I, too, have a large list of important characters in my books. My second features an entire team (5 people) that play main character roles on just the hero's side.

I'm in a writers group where we bring 10 pages a week, which means, by the time I'm finished bringing my 2nd book through, it will be about 9 months total. I have also had people forget who characters are, but that's simply because it's spaced out so far. 90% of readers are not going to take nearly that long to read, so characters will be easier to remember for them.

 

[KG Christopher]

I have a spreadsheet with 30 primary and secondary characters listed. I keep 15 attributes about each character

name,age,guild,hair,eyes,skin,clothing,guild,from,pet,one sentance

The 'one sentence' allows me to describe the character in brief, and it's quite a good exercise for me, for as the character changes over the length of my WIP, I have to change the sentence to reflect that change.

I did toy with the idea or drawing my characters, but I felt that it's better for the reader to imagine them?

I do have lots of 'background' characters that are not named, but may have a bit part in a scene -- a man sitting at a table, a child in school laughing at another, etc...

 

[Kitty]

A couple of suggestions if your cast of characters is getting too big or confusing.

1. Look at the way these characters are introduced. bringing in a lot of characters in quick succession can easily confuse the reader. See if they need to be a bit more spread out so that the reader gets the chance to get to know each one in turn before you introduce someone else.

2. Are all the characters vital to the plot? Look at each one and determine what they are contributing to the story? Can it be equally well provided by someone else? If so then consider merging those character and if they don't move the plot forwards ask yourself if they are really needed.

I have to say that twenty main characters does seem rather a lot - even for crime fiction!

 

[Patricia D]

I'm nearing the end of my WIP, a second novel in what looks like becoming a series of psychological thrillers about a Cornish detective.

I'm being assisted in the process of creation by the services of a beta-reader, who's noticed things I've overlooked. She commented that she was a bit confused about who was who with the characters early on, which gave me pause for thought as I try to differentiate my protagonists with names that suggest their nature. Thus, my protagonist Inspector Neil Kettle is deferential while building up a head of steam as he comes to the boil. Retired detective Roger Rule is always trying to screw something out of people and has a distant autocratic manner from having been in command.

I decided that part of the problem for my beta-reader was that she received the novel in sections of two chapters by email, and this made it awkward for her to flip back to check who people are—as we tend to do with complicated stories we're settling into. All the same, I wondered if I needed to have a Cast of Characters at the beginning of the story. This is a common feature of episodic sagas of family history sprawled over the ages and long fantasy epics, which have 50+ characters.

My 80,000-word crime novel has about a 20 named characters, with 20 minor players who feature in only one scene and pass through without being named. I know who everyone is, but I've been living in this dream world for the last seven months!

Do any other members of the Colony use a Cast of Characters as a helpful feature of their novel?

I've never used a cast of characters but have read many books that did, especially crime novels and multi-generational family dramas. I can't think of any downside to including one. Nor is it certain one is needed if someone reading two chapters every whatever has trouble remembering just who Harold is.

An aside,
I amused myself by doing the opposite in my naming conventions: Frank is a liar, Claire is bright but far from clear, etc. I've also changed names during the writing process, which ended up confusing me but seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Yes, my kids were devastated when I changed a character name to avoid confusion after they'd reviewed an early draft.

I have difficulty with names--I'm lucky I remember my own some days--so I have trouble keeping even my own characters straight over the course of a novel. As a reader, I appreciate any help an author gives me. Go ahead and put that cast of characters in.

 

[J. Rook]

I keep a file for each of the main and semi-main characters. I copy/paste pertinent parts of the MS, into the file and add the page number. It takes a bit of time, but I have found it to be a very useful practice. There's nothing worse than losing continuity. Readers seem to have eyes like hawks and memories with copper bottoms.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

A couple of suggestions if your cast of characters is getting too big or confusing.

1. Look at the way these characters are introduced. bringing in a lot of characters in quick succession can easily confuse the reader. See if they need to be a bit more spread out so that the reader gets the chance to get to know each one in turn before you introduce someone else.

2. Are all the characters vital to the plot? Look at each one and determine what they are contributing to the story? Can it be equally well provided by someone else? If so then consider merging those character and if they don't move the plot forwards ask yourself if they are really needed.

I have to say that twenty main characters does seem rather a lot - even for crime fiction!

I have nine characters who are involved in most of the action, with the other eleven being named as they appear in support roles in more than one scene—such as a newspaper journalist and a forensic pathologist. As soon as a conversation begins, it's likely that names are going to be needed.

I tailor how they speak to help identify them, with one older detective being courteous while a younger officer who is given to flashes of inspiration tends to interrupt conversations. This gives a stimulating variety to the beat of a paragraph, rather than it sounding monotone. Hopefully, this helps a reader to become familiar with who is in a scene. The words they use help too, and I have one lesbian detective who knows the world of naturism and surfing using the correct lingo when interviewing suspects in a beach bar used by a predominantly gay surfing crowd.

 

[Matnov]

About to start writing a crime novel and have decided to go with a mind map for at least attempting to keep some continuity going from the start. First time I have ever approached writing anything with at least a semblance of a plan in place (no plot much beyond the first 6 or so chapters along with a developing back story which might actually give me a thread for building a series but I would only confess that on here and even then, only in a whisper).

 

[Patricia D]

Mysteries need enough characters to make identifying the villain a puzzle. I've actually gone back and expanded or added minor characters for that reason.

 

[Chase Gamwell]

Now, I've never read your work, but twenty named (recurring) characters in an 80K work doesn't sound too terribly off base - especially for the type of work it is. While you may not need a character glossary, it might be easier to add more dialogue tags or some other means of identifying which character is which? That is, if that's even the issue. Like you said, it's fairly possible that the issue is due to the work being sent off in two chapter chunks. I know that if I take a break of a few weeks, or a month, from reading something, I can have a hard time coming back and remembering who everyone is. In a few sittings spaced out over a week or so, that issue may not even materialize.