Well, I'm having a few problems with Chosen Twelve, which has a cast of about 40 (I think I might have over-stretched myself). However a cast can be any size as long as there is a need for each character I'd say.
Well 40 is a lot although thats in 4 seperate storylines isn't it? Some of the characters are there for background, some are returning its just the situation post chosen always leaves you with lots of Slayers so I'm trying to fill out 3 of them in addition to the principals.
Post-Chosen stories do leave you with a lot of options, you have Angel's cast, the possibility of bringing back people like Amy and Oz, the new Slayers....
It depends largely on the size of your story and your skill with characterization. The characterization part is obvious, of course -- the more individual you make them look, act, and speak, the easier time your reader will have distinguishing them. Dialogue and mannerisms are critical here.
Length is important because with a longer story, you have time to delve into those personalities, establish the mannerisms, and give them time to become invididuals. For a novella size story or longer, I don't think your cast list is too out of hand -- you just have to make sure the reader knows who is where and doing what, at what time. If you were writing a short story, I'd tell you to start slashing!
My first fanfic, "Where Do We Go From Here?", followed every member of the Buffy cast who survived Chosen, plus two villians from the series and three original characters, over 14 chapters. I never had any complaints that readers had trouble following the story -- although it's always possible they were just being nice.
you're welcome. Even though I haven't scored a fiction sale, I've been doing this for so many years that I've learned a thing or two along the way. Give me three decades of writing stories and I'll figure out a thing or two!
I think it differs for everyone and every story. I tend to keep my cast lists fairly controlled for the reoccuring characters - probably averaging maybe 4 or 5 key characters at max for most stories - but then again I'm more than willing to add extra characters for mini-stories that occur within a bigger arc, only to have them disappear once that particular plot is finished.
I agree with Keith, as long as there's a reason for each character to be in the fic then your readers shouldn't feel overwhelmed or that you've overstretched yourself.
For a large fic then the 15 or so you've described shouldn't be an issue, for smaller ficlets I'd probably stick with 2 or 3 characters. I think even in larger stories, it's not having too many characters that's an issue - it's having too many in any one scene.
I think the largest cast in any fic of mine is in What The Hellmouth Happened??? - I'm not sure how many exactly that consisted of, but I'd be surprised if it was more than 10 (though I viewed it as about 3 separate but connected plots
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Thanks, I think I was wary of fleshing out a couple of characters too much as they were very incidental and I wasn't sure what I wanted to use them for. They were mainly intended to be foils. Now though I think I'll flesh them out a little more.
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Post-Chosen stories do leave you with a lot of options, you have Angel's cast, the possibility of bringing back people like Amy and Oz, the new Slayers....
Lots to play with.
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Length is important because with a longer story, you have time to delve into those personalities, establish the mannerisms, and give them time to become invididuals. For a novella size story or longer, I don't think your cast list is too out of hand -- you just have to make sure the reader knows who is where and doing what, at what time. If you were writing a short story, I'd tell you to start slashing!
My first fanfic, "Where Do We Go From Here?", followed every member of the Buffy cast who survived Chosen, plus two villians from the series and three original characters, over 14 chapters. I never had any complaints that readers had trouble following the story -- although it's always possible they were just being nice.
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I agree with Keith, as long as there's a reason for each character to be in the fic then your readers shouldn't feel overwhelmed or that you've overstretched yourself.
For a large fic then the 15 or so you've described shouldn't be an issue, for smaller ficlets I'd probably stick with 2 or 3 characters. I think even in larger stories, it's not having too many characters that's an issue - it's having too many in any one scene.
I think the largest cast in any fic of mine is in What The Hellmouth Happened??? - I'm not sure how many exactly that consisted of, but I'd be surprised if it was more than 10 (though I viewed it as about 3 separate but connected plots ( ... )
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