Too many characters

[Dearelliot]

I spent months on a short erotic story, and feel like I just dont like it...It has too many characters...5, and it seems a bit convoluted...like...developing each character has taken too long and...interrupts the smooth flow of the story...

 

[AlinaX]

Don't worry, it's a 4000 character limit, you'll be fine.

 

[Voboy]

Don't worry, it's a 4000 character limit, you'll be fine.

I was going to post something like that.

OP, there's no magic rule of thumb about this. I tend to overpopulate my own stories because I connect them all, and I like putting in easter eggs for myself.

I'd suggest that if you, as the writer, feel there are too many characters, then you're probably right to listen to your gut.

 

[crookedletter]

This is where the revision part comes in. You've written it, you've spent a lot of time getting to know these characters. Now you can go through and ask yourself which details and interruptions the reader actually needs.

Sometimes writing all the details to develop a character is more beneficial to the writer than reading it is to the reader. You get it all out there on the page to start with so that you know them, and then at some point you know them well enough that they can come through in their actions and their dialogue.

This is when I make a copy of my draft, and then start cutting shit.

 

[BeechLeaf]

Five is probably at the upper end for main characters. Of course many stories are just about two people, but many others expand to cover their friends or people they interact with. If they're main characters, you probably want to bring them in by ones and twos. A football team or a classroom is confusing if they're all brought in in the same scene. But once you've established two, you can move on and bring in a third, then another. Of course there's no limit to minor characters, but at around five major characters, perhaps that's the point to think about splitting it into different stories.

 

[Britva415]

Don't worry, it's a 4000 character limit, you'll be fine.

I was told it was 20,000 per page!

 

[THBGato]

I spent months on a short erotic story, and feel like I just dont like it...It has too many characters...5, and it seems a bit convoluted...like...developing each character has taken too long and...interrupts the smooth flow of the story.

I have a short story (3,000 words) which is basically six characters having a conversation. One commenter pointed out that I had essentially split them into three pairs, which made it easier to track. It got a good reception (far better than I expected really).

I don't know if doing something like that is an option for you?

There's also a really good one by @Arcadia (in my favourites list) that does the same with a family of three, with each member meeting their SO at a fair, ending up with 6 main characters. That's 35k words. The writer deals with it by basically writing three intertwining, but essentially separate, stories. I'd link to it, but given that recent thread about not linking to stories here... Worth checking out, and not just as a potential model, but because it's excellent!

 

[Britva415]

This is where the revision part comes in.

"There's a revision part?"

I'm not necessarily including OP in this because I don't know, but it repeatedly floors me how little awareness or willingness a lot of AH authors seem to have, regarding this standard part of writing. Especially creative writing.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

One of my current works on progress has 22 girl/women characters, all named after a different type of flower. The main male character has sex with all of them at some point in his life. The story is a tale of his sojourn through life. It will not be a short story.

Everything is working out fine so far.

 

[JGittes]

I write long stories and find it easier to start with more characters. I've found I will invariably need two more further down the road and it's easier to cut and consolidate unnecessary characters than retrofit necessary ones from scratch.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Yeah, five main characters with full backstories is definitley pushing the limits. But, that's what the editing phase is for. So finish the story and then figure out what details on whom are really necessary.

 

[ronde]

You can juggle as many characters as you think you need to tell the story. The only thing that's important is to limit the number in any given scene, especially if they're talking. You end up with a bunch of (name) said's in order to keep things straight. That works, but can quickly become confusing to a reader.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Too many? Five?

Most families have that or more. Then there are offices, schools, clubs ....

Now when you start getting to 10 or 15, it gets hard to keep track of who is doing who where.

 

[SmilingLez]

I spent months on a short erotic story, and feel like I just dont like it...It has too many characters...5, and it seems a bit convoluted...like...developing each character has taken too long and...interrupts the smooth flow of the story...

Trust your gut

 

[MillieDynamite]

One of, god only knows how many, options is to expand it into a novella. Increase the scenes, increase the erotic ones, expand the world into interconnecting tales. However, it's your work, and only you can decide how to proceed. As others have said, there are no magic numbers of characters to have in a story.

 

[Dearelliot]

Thank you all for your comments and advice, I like that.

 

[MountainLakes]

Let's see... My first story published here - originally in 14 chapters* - had 21 main characters. Two of whom were ghosts, or figments of another character's imagination depending on the way one read the deliberate ambiguity. Another was decidedly imaginary. And there were 23 other named supporting characters.

*Every now and again a new chapter appears... and so, the number of involved characters grows.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Thank you all for your comments and advice, I like that.

I get the impression from some of these comments that several people contributing advice are under the impression that your question was related to characters in a particular scene and not in the entire story.

 

[Trionyx]

One additional thought: make sure the names are different enough so as to not confuse the reader. Having a Shelly and a Sheila together can be a problem. My stories generally have only a few characters but I still try to keep the names distinct.

 

[MountainLakes]

One of my stories has a Darryl, a Daroll, a Darrell, a Darell, a Derell, a Daryll, a Darryll, a Darrel, a Darel, a Darroll, a Darrell, a Derrell, and a Darius - who is the father / grandfather / great grandfather of the first dozen.

I also have a story where every foreman at a factory is named George. (George A., George M., George P., George R. ...)

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

One of my stories has a Darryl, a Daroll, a Darrell, a Darell, a Derell, a Daryll, a Darryll, a Darrel, a Darel, a Darroll, a Darrell, a Derrell, and a Darius - who is the father / grandfather / great grandfather of the first dozen.

No Larry?