[stylist] Dealing with a large cast of characters

Thu Jan 5 04:19:11 UTC 2017

Also, just study how authors you like work with multiple characters. Analyze how they keep things straight and see if you can emulate it.

Bridgit

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of debby via stylist
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2017 9:50 PM
To: Tessa via stylist <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Cc: debby <semisweetdebby at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [stylist] Dealing with a large cast of characters

Hi Tessa, one thing you could do is list all the characters at the beginning of the book. I have read a few books where the author does that. I've liked that in some cases as I too got lost and couldn't remember characters. Best of luck.    Debby

On Jan 3, 2017 12:01 PM, Tessa via stylist <stylist at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> 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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