How Do You Handle Large Casts?

[HGohwell]

So, I'm not overly looking for advice. I have my own technique called wing it and see (ok that's not quite true, it more involves I've done it so often because I can't keep a cast small I have a pretty instinctive sense for it) but I am curious how other people do it.

For instance my cast of the comic I'm working on in the background has 5 criminals, 1 mechanic, 1 little sister, 1 CEO channeling his inner Bond villain, 1 surround by idiots detective and 1 villain. So that's a main cast of roughly 10. And that's not including the more minor characters. Obviously these are in tears, the villain isn't going to be seen as often as the main 5 criminals and their mechanic.

I think the best tip I've gotten is to make sure every moment is important. Especially for these second tier main characters. Every moment should be full of purpose and character as possible. The less time you have with a character the more you have to pack in. Although that doesn't help much with balancing it.

So, how do you handle a large cast of main characters? Any that do it very well you've seen? Any examples of media you've seen who didn't do it so well? Any tips for other creators you want to share?

[KoreanTacos]

I've learned through my experience with my first comic: sometimes you really need to know who the actual important person in your comic is. Some characters just won't receive the same amount of attention as others, at the end of the day if they don't help progress the story or don't add enough then they either need to be cut or drop in importance.

[HGohwell]

Visual novels definitely have an advantage there. Definitely something comics and novels would struggle with though. Unless you're the Fate/ series and just make separate seasons for every single possible route. Or if you're Muv Luv and produce side stories focused on the backstory and side stories and future stories and AU stories of pretty much every character mentioned ever. Or like Umineko and build the different routes into a linear story. Doable but very time consuming.

[migxmeg]

This is the reason I haven't finished The Wheel of Time series (which I started reading 20 years ago) and ooooh I've tried. Every time a chapter with a character I just don't care about (or even remember in some cases) came up it was a struggle not to drop it and one that I always lost eventually.

[AmazementComics]

Glad you asked. Currently, Amazement Comics has 250+ characters in its entirety (though the number is subject to change). That's why I created a series on Tapas that is more or less a character biography series. I don't know whether or not we'll get around to all characters, but we want to get through most of them. Perhaps all of the main characters, because there are many stories, involving many different people, that requires their OWN main cast apart from the rest of the OC's. The minor characters are exactly what they sound like. So I don't use them often in the stories, but I have identified every possible main character, and minor character out of everyone that exists in the whole fictional universe.

The worldbuilding in the comics is relative to who is a main character and a minor character. So I would suggest creating a character guide series like myself, or making outlines of your characters and saving them to a word document.

[HGohwell]

This is a big worry I often have. I think it's more common in novels that comics, since comics I can at least recognise a character by their looks rather than just a name like novels. Even if I don't know their name it's yeah the the redhead one. Of course this gets trickier the bigger cast, but this is why lots of visual medias have characters in just one signature outfit.

[migxmeg]

To be fair, I made it through thousands of pages before I couldn't stand it anymore! I think it's only an issue in a long-running series where you're juggling more than a dozen POVs and introduce more pov characters late. I mind it a lot less in novels where we stay in one person's head (or just a few).

[HGohwell]

Yeah, too many POVs can be a nightmare, especially if they don't have distinctive voices. I always try to stick to no more than 3 but mostly I'll stick to 1. It's just easier for everyone.

[Dizwikz]

I write my novel in a sort of omnipotent third-person perspective because I have the easiest time writing in a script format, so I like having the freedom of being able to shift the mind's eye to whatever place I want it in the scene. I rarely get inside a character's head and generally like to just show things happening. I do have quite a few characters, but they're all pretty quirky and distinctive from one another.

[NickRowler]

For me I sort of have tiers.

• There is the main tier. This where the main characters and the most important side characters go. They will have the most development out of the characters and appear more frequent.

• There is 2nd tier. These characters will appear briefly and have some importance to the overall plot. They might have some background but it's not as deep as the main tier characters.

• There is 3rd tier. These characters appear rarely but have some importance. These characters tend to have little to no depth but usually their to fill a role. For example, a character's parents might appear here.

• Then there is 4th tier. These are mostly just characters to fill space. They might have a brief speaking role but has no bigger impact on the overall story. Some may not even have names.

I think the thing some people might find overwhelming with a large cast is when a creator feels the need to put most of the characters in the main or 2nd tier. Not all your characters need to have a deep backstory. If a concern is "I have too many characters", I would recommend combining similar characters and/or cutting pointless characters.

[HGohwell]

when a creator feels the need to put most of the characters in the main or 2nd tier. Not all your characters need to have a deep backstory. If a concern is "I have too many characters", I would recommend combining similar characters and/or cutting pointless characters.

I have seen so many even professional creators fall into this trap. They constantly introduce new groups characters with fully fleshed out backstory and details when a previously introduced character would do the job just fine. An entire new group of villains with names and backstory to be killed off 2 chapters later when you have perfectly good groups of mooks running around already. And using fully fleshed out characters when faceless mooks will do the job. I don't need to know the redshirt's life story.

[pilot-obvious]

I have a pretty large cast of main characters, along with a bunch of other reoccurring characters. I have my main characters set in tiers: My MAIN main protagonists, main antagonists, other main protagonists that have important parts in the story but aren't necessarily introduced right away, and supplemental characters who contribute to the story but not enough to be considered the main cast.

I really try to write my story intentionally, making sure every character interaction has its purpose and moves the story forward. If there's anything that seems like 'fluff' that helps build the world, it usually means that those characters will serve some sort of importance later on in the story. I also really try to develop my characters so they're multidimensional. I want them to have their own unique struggles and battles within the story itself that make them more interesting and memorable.

I always come back to Mad Men when I think about this. They had the main characters that got a lot of screen time like Don Draper and Peggy Olson, but they also had a ton of supporting characters who had their own sort of 'arcs' within the series.

[BrambleberrySquirrel]

My comic has an 8 character cast. I manage it by using a braided narrative structure. So each episode focuses on a different character. Over time the different separate stories for each character begin to cross over with each other. Conflicts and affinities between characters form and drive forward the plot. My mission with each update is to accomplish at least one of the following:

1. The audience learns something new about a character
2. The audience feels something unexpected for a character (maybe someone they hate has a more complicated back story that sheds light on the reasons behind their actions. Maybe a character they really like is more flawed than they appear to be on the surface.)
3. A new dimension of a relationship between 2 or more characters is explored in order to reveal more about each character in a way that allows the audience to connect with them on a deeper level.
4. No matter what I focus on moving the plot forward. My comic has a slice of life feel and pacing to it and is more character driven than event driven. So I make sure that the parts of my characters that I reveal or explore more in each update are things that relate to what other characters are dealing with in their own parts of the story.

This allows me to tell an overarching story with a lot of moving parts and perspectives while doing my best to keep things coherent. This also means that a reader has to commit to reading probably a good 7-10 episodes to really know what the story is. So there are definitely pros and cons to this approach. I'm committed to a couple years of updates to tell the whole story though so I'm okay with the slow burn pace of things.

[cherrystark]

I consider a "large" main cast as five or more featured people. My series has a large main cast of six, now seven "main characters".

I think the best tip I've gotten is to make sure every moment is important. Especially for these second tier main characters. Every moment should be full of purpose and character as possible. The less time you have with a character the more you have to pack in. Although that doesn't help much with balancing it.

This is really good advice. I break my characters' interactions into smaller groupings. It's a lot easier, at least in my opinion, to weave together a bunch of short, cut scenes featuring 1 or 2 characters rather than showing the featuring them together ALL THE TIME.

My advise for larger casts is that if your characters don't know where X character is, YOU should. If the character isn't immediately involved in what the rest of the people are doing, we should know that they are off doing XYZ -- and if you can, show us what they're doing. It's helpful for subplots as well as explaining why someone disappeared for X chapters.

I also encourage that if you're going to name a character, they should have a "job" in the story. Sure, it's one thing to name a character if they have dialogue and interact with other characters in a scene. But if Terry the guy from the best friend's gym, has one scene, I'd say you're okay to refer to that character in "general terms" if needed later in the story. I've had trouble keeping characters straight if all there is, is a list of character names.

Cop shows or crime procedurals do an okay job with larger casts. Everyone who is featured regularly has a key role to the story and they don't add in new players without solid reasoning.

[HGohwell]

This is really good advice. I break my characters' interactions into smaller groupings. It's a lot easier, at least in my opinion, to weave together a bunch of short, cut scenes featuring 1 or 2 characters rather than showing the featuring them together ALL THE TIME

I think yeah small groups is really important. Even irl, even if you're in a large group gathering (which you shouldn't be right now obviously, stay safe people) of family or friends, you still generally only having a conversation with one or two people at a time, even if there are dozens of people in the room.

I also encourage that if you're going to name a character, they should have a "job" in the story. Sure, it's one thing to name a character if they have dialogue and interact with other characters in a scene.

Very much this. You're allowed to call the mum who's just there to say hello and goodbye and little else "their mum" same with their teacher or boss or that checkout girl. They don't all need a name (I think it's a bit weird when characters call their parents by their names in close POVs).

Cop shows or crime procedurals do an okay job with larger casts. Everyone who is featured regularly has a key role to the story and they don't add in new players without solid reasoning.

I've never noticed this before but yeah, now you mention it. They're all in their lab/office/desk or doing their job. They tend to work in pairs at most and report to a single boss. They're very rarely all together cluttering things up.

[domisotto]

I avoid it. My first novel had multiple POVs and large cast, and as much as I loved it, I wrote the rest of my stories in single or dual POV with limited casts.

[cherrystark]

I've never noticed this before but yeah, now you mention it. They're all in their lab/office/desk or doing their job. They tend to work in pairs at most and report to a single boss. They're very rarely all together cluttering things up.

Exactly. The main cast always fills a role like a protagonist/leader, love interest, muscle, the boss, the mentor, tech guy/genius, "hot one", etc. They might play multiple roles but once a character is introduced as a love interest; they're going to stay the love interest until the character is fully replaced. New love interests might get introduced but they'll always leave because the OG love interest is still around.

[DiegoPalacios]

Characters are introduced as they become relevant. However, i sometimes drop hints of their existance by making early cameos in the background or foreshadowing.

[rajillustration]

I separate the main cast from the secondary cast, and in my current book/comic, I put the main cast in detention and everyone else went on a feild trip. Problem solved.

[darkone4587]

I typically focus on groups of them at a time and try expanding things slowly from there.