Has anyone else notice this

[cherrystark]

I'm not sure if I would classify this as a pet peeve. I've just started to notice this stuff that I've read lately and it's weird.

Has anyone else noticed when stories just start to dump character names into the story without tons of context. Like you get the stereotypical characters: main character, love interest, sassy best friend, etc in the story, but then they decide to just keep dumping characters in. The MCs family is all named, siblings' spouses, nieces/nephews, best friend's boyfriend's best friend... It just gets confusing when they start listing names and I'm like "who's this?"

If we do get a description of them, it's a generic: blue eyes with sandy brown hair or curvy "in all the right places"

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Oh you have read mine then

[cherrystark]

Ok, I'm game. I'll check it out

[WriterLinXiaolong]

As someone who has read tons of Chinese Novel, remembering names and who they are is an acquired skills. I mean, you sometimes get someone who disappeared on chapter 40+ but reappeared at chapter 300+

So I guess I'm used to name dumping. Worse, if you read a wuxia/xianxia/xuanhuan novel... In some novel, you need to remember 3 things for a character. Their name, their courtesy name, their titles

[MoseyP]

There are so many famous authors that do that too. I'm looking at you, Stephen King and George R. R. Martin! Seriously, I'm so bad at remembering character's names to start with, if you fling like 20 or 30 at me in the prologue and chapter one I'm going to forget!

[kmlangleyauthor]

This is so frustrating and I try so hard to avoid doing that it’s even worse when the name pops up for the first time like you’re expected to know who they’re talking about with no context or background info

[DasIstWunderblyat]

I am joking, but thank you!

I admit I am guilty of this thing too
I remember characters and name quite easily, but not with real people unfortunately

[Crusoe]

Tbh I do this too, but I figured not naming them is going to give me problems for the future if they need to interact, so it's a lesser of two evils

[cherrystark]

In general, I am okay with large casts but I like it when the characters have a purpose. Like the LOTR series has a huge cast but the characters are all important pieces of the plot. Not named for the sake of names

One of my friends doesn't believe in names. She'll answer to her given name because she's not a jerk but she doesn't identify with it. To her, it's just a sound people use to get your attention. I also noticed that people don't tend to use each other's given names too much. We nickname each other. Nicknames are connections.

I guess that's what's so weird to me. There is no connection point. It just becomes a list of names

[foxnflames]

If I know a character will be reoccurring then I’ll name them. Otherwise they’re some dude or whatever

@sxxaint this is the topic I was talking about with the names

[nostalgicroxas]

Sometimes names are important if you have the group of suuuuper minor characters but they all have dialogue for an interaction with the MC. In a comic you can brush it off soooo easily but in a novel you're like, uh... knight #1 with the tall narrow face and the uh... bruise on his upper lip -> times every time he talks for the next few pages.

And I've seen like said before, popular authors do it too. And some characters will be a reoccurring joke - like the 2 boys in the background of Harry Potter movies, forget their names. But even newer popular authors like Rick Riordan will do that too - establish some characters that are extra and minor characters, and then drop them in way later in the novel, or later in the series.

[youu2sef]

Quick question
Have you tried mine

[TAMAnnoying]

Everyone has a name cause I've played D&D all my life- and you'll always get that ONE player that needs to introduce themselves to every NPC its just a force of habit by now.

tho admittedly it is rough for me too XD but thats cause I'm just awful at names in general- Well have someone working at my store for like two months and then leave to go to a new job/department and i still never remembered their name

[sxxaint]

ooooh i see now

@cherrystark i feel your pain, everyone's mentioning huge casts here and i never would've said this was a problem before now because hell, I read malazan and that's a huge goddamn cast, but today i read a novel (not one of you lot on tapas) and i was drowning in like thirty family names with no description of them or explicit explanation of their place within the family, and it makes for a hard read.

So in this I agree with @nostalgicroxas - I have two coworkers of my MC named in the first chapter, and honestly, they aren't coming back but how stupid would it be if he was like 'this coworker of mine said'.

If you at least explain who the person is, there's dialogue interaction, and a visible point in their appearance, I think you're probably good to go!

[Berserker]

I try to keep my character count low, because there has been too many times in books I gotta go back 100 pages like, "ok who the hell is this suddenly important person I don't remember."

[HGohwell]

I don't mind characters getting named in passing. There's only so often you can go "that blonde school mate" or "the one with the freckles" in narration just name them if they're going to be in and out but still background. Sure I might not remember their name, but if you character goes to school/work/similar, you can name them. In fact it's kinda weirder if you character is at home for a scene and narration just goes "their brother" or something, you can name them even if their just there for one scene.

The problem comes for me when every single character is unique and backstoryed and new, when either your already introduced cast or faceless mooks will do the same job. Some of my favourite creators do this and I want to shake them because I don't know which ones are super important and who I should care about and I want to shake them because you already have a character who can do this why do you need another? That raid on the good guys could have been done by a faceless goon why did that character need a cool unique design name and backstory? This character only appears for one chapter did they really need backstory and cool name and interesting powers when a goon or previous character could have done the job?

[cherrystark]

@sxxaint Yes! Exactly! If they have a role in the scene, name them! But I would rather read a sentence that says "he went on a run with his friends" then "he went running with Howie, Chris, Ethan, Frank, and Steve"

I read a werewolf story where the author literlly wrote in a half dozen "new" characters into the 3rd act just to pair everyone off. AND THEN added like 2 dozen more names in the epilogue for all of the subsequent children. It was a lot.

@Berserker right there with you. My main cast has six people and that can be hard enough to track

[cherrystark]

I've noticed that too!!! They'll do a cool scene to introduce the character and then NEVER talk about them again