Beginners: How many people does your story need?

HEAD COUNT

How many people does your story need? Think carefully when you ’ re populating your fiction, says

There ’ s no hard-and-fast rule as far as I know – if there is, I missed it years ago – regarding how many characters you should or should not use in your stories. Some writers wonder whether they ’ ve overdone things when it comes to populating a single work – I know I have.

I raise this point because on a clearout blitz a couple of weeks ago when cleaning the keyboard was simply not challenging enough, I happened on a character list produced by the editor of my latest series title. To my surprise it totalled 57 names, from the main lead, Inspector Rocco of the French police, through the various repeat characters, down to the baddies, miscreants and walk-ons, some of whom I swear inserted themselves into the story by stealth.

So, how many is right?

In short stories, the fewer the better.

Imagine, say, Les Miserables being cast on a tiny stage, and you ’ll know what I mean. It ’ s easy for names and characters to start tripping over each other. In a story of, say, 3,000 words, the poor reader might begin to wonder who was the focus of the tale and why.

I tend to work on the basis of four characters maximum, preferably fewer if they each take an active or speaking part. It ’ s better to have two, maybe three interesting people rather than a cast of two dozen wandering through the story like talent night at a scouts ’ jamboree.

Book-length works are a different animal altogether. You ’ re got more room – and time – to introduce and get rid of characters. Some will outlive their usefulness very quickly, although for the reader they may well linger in their memory longer than you expect. Many will need some kind of description, brief or otherwise, depending on their role in the scheme of things, and it ’ s worth sparing a few words to make them come alive. For example those who play an integral part in the storyline will need more than a passing mention, whereas those you use as part of the backdrop scenery require less. (It ’ s fun, though, when you find a minor character demanding to be elevated by sheer force of personality. If you haven ’ t ever experienced that phenomenon, buckle up your britches because it will happen one day.)

Too many stand-about characters with little or nothing to contribute make for a busy but less-thaninteresting tale. It ’ s like watching the Olympic short-track speed skating; you know all the assembled bodies rushing around the ice like ants are involved because they must have come through a check-in gate to get out there. But you don ’ t have time to get to know any of them before they ’ ve done their bit and are gone.

The benefit for naming or describing some of the longer-stayers is that it nails them more firmly than being a simple passer-by. No matter how brief,

if they flesh out the story backdrop in any way by speech or action, they will provide you with something else to say which, quite apart from adding colour and depth to a scene, goes towards your word-count.

I say be cautious here because these characters don ’ t all need a biography about their school days, who they had a crush on, where they like to go on their hols and what their favourite film might be… unless a character happens to be one of a group of thugs who has your main lead strapped to a dentist ’ s chair and mutters aloud that his favourite film ever of all time is Marathon Man. (That dental appointment you were thinking of? Forget it.)

Extra characters, brief or not, can serve to add some interesting punch and colour to a scene. A dialogue between two people can easily drag on a little (cue editor suggestion to cut the waffle and get on with the action). Bringing in AN Other can serve as a diversion and propel the conversation in another direction.

If you think about it, there ’ s not much that we do in life without someone else walking by, coming in or briefly joining a conversation. It ’ s like the phone call that always seems to come at the wrong moment (or the right one if you need a quick exit). Such interruptions are commonplace and therefore easy to add to a scene without seeming forced.

In fact, depending on the scene, an interruption can show an additional side to the character(s), adding another dimension which you might want to bring to the storyline or to give you that break needed to launch into another viewpoint. An office scene, for example, might well have run its course and you could be wondering how to end it. Bring a knock on the door or a phone call, and you have your exit strategy. This allows you to move on with the story rather than getting stuck.

Speech can also add this extra dimension. If you ’ re in the middle of a thriller scene for example, an aside by one or more of the characters containing some dark humour will add some colour between bursts of action as well as making a character more memorable.

T O P T I P S

• Overpopulating every scene can be a distraction for the reader. • An over-long scene between two people can become unrealistic if it threatens to go nowhere. You need an escape clause. • Using names for minor characters pins them to the story. How you enlarge on that is up to you –but some might surprise you by suggesting their own elevation.

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