[stylist] Dealing with a large cast of characters

[Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter]

I've been told that if a character has a name, they are an important
character. If a major character comes into contact with another that's not
crucial to the story, do not name them.

Also, if a character does not drive the plot forward in some fashion, they
can be cut.

Bridgit

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tessa via
stylist
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2017 2:02 PM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Cc: Tessa <puppycat at tbaytel.net>
Subject: [stylist] Dealing with a large cast of characters

I would like to get some thoughts on how to deal with a large cast of
characters.
In my WW II story my mc ends up nursing victims of shellshock. First she has
a large family 4 brothers and 3 sisters who she thinks of often. Second when
she enters the nursing program she is placed in a room with five other
women. Third she works primarily on two wards containing 40 men of whom six
or eight play a major role but she knows and works with most if not all of
the others. She also has friends and colleagues that she deals with.
At one point she and another nurse and 25 of the men are moved to a new
location and then those 25 are slowly whittled down.
My big issue is trying to keep everyone straight, who's present who's now
gone and so on, I'm just not sure how much of that I should detail. When
they move should I list in some fashion the ones that make the move or let
the names come out in bits and bites through the story. Most of these guys
appear once or twice in the story and I can't really create entire episodes
for most of them but I don't want them to just be faceless entities without
a name. 
I know in many books with large character lists I find myself getting lost
as to who is who and I don't want my readers to be doing that. 
I have about 10'000 words to edit before the end and then I hope to start on
the final edit where I'll tie up all these loose threads and suggestions
from readers. So if anyone has any ideas on how to handle this I'd
appreciate hearing them.
Tessa 


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