How Do You Handle Large Casts?

Legendofgenii 2020-10-28 10:51:25 UTC #22

At the moment I just have four to deal with, but a do have a couple more of the main cast to add. I am not going to deviate away from the MC's POV unless it's absolutely necessary.

If it happens in a book I'm reading I'll just skip a few pages or skim read until it gets back to the main character's story line.

Drawing-wise, I imagine it's a nightmare to cram all the cast into one panel/page. They did ok in End Game though.

artemficta 2020-10-28 14:17:04 UTC #23

My previous comic Zenchav had a large cast past chapter 9 and changed PoV a lot because I wanted to tell multiple sides of the story, thinking I could write it more like a book. It didn't work well because of webcomic update time, since if you shift PoV you're not going to revisit the other PoV for potentially years. If readers were attached to the original PoV...well... You've lost them, lol.

With my reboot ( Ring Spell) I've made the main cast more of an ensemble cast where the main four are almost always present, and the PoV never really shifts away from them. The plot (showcased through their interactions) is always driving their actions so there's not a single scene where the story isn't moving forward.

JaxonBlacc 2020-10-28 14:35:45 UTC #24

The answer is simple: prayer

HGohwell 2020-10-28 16:34:32 UTC #25

Haha this is a really good point I hadn't even thought about. But yeah, I've just spent like a year in a flashback chapter in my chapter and I remember all the complaints when Black Butlers manga did that and that was updating a chapter a month, I know a lot of people who stopped reading at that stage because it was dragging to get back to the main plot. Yeah, gotta be aware of the how you're pacing things with these update schedules.

ghostmaya 2020-10-28 16:39:48 UTC #26

I made each character their own Arcs base on their backstories and importance to the story~

JoshRaid 2020-10-28 17:09:38 UTC #27

I try to give every character their own episodic chapter about themselves. Certain chapters are better than others at this and there are certain characters where I will need to add one, but I still do it.