forum How Many Characters is Too Many Characters?

Started June 26, 2018 by @Va_Vanilla

tune

So, I have over 20 something characters, is that bad? Like I guess not all of them are main characters but I still feel like that's a lot.

Oh I feel like I should also note that I am in the process of creating another world so…

I have 225 character my dude

I think you're doing fine

if you see that you can't use all the characters

just erase em

As far as balancing them in the story goes, I think there are a couple of keys.
-How many subplots are divided amongst them? Infinity War balanced lots of characters well by grouping them into only a few separate subplots. If each of the 20 characters has their own plot, THEN it becomes too much.
-How far do you develop each of them? Developed characters are great but there is only so much space in a story and in our minds. Empire Strikes Back introduces Lando, Boba Fett, Yoda, the Emperor, Admiral Piett, and more in addition to balancing the returning characters. These smaller characters all have speaking roles but varying amounts of development. This isn't even to mention all of the other even smaller characters that play roles and say lines and have a presence in the story.
*I struggle with a similar issues, and it makes me fear that it's going to become too much. Pixar's rules of storytelling recommends combining characters where you can. This helps, but also sometimes you just have to discover how many characters you need to portion out their time. Find your focal point characters (for me, it's 4 heroes, 2 primary villains) and give them their due. The others can fade into the background once their part is played and audiences generally won't ask questions :) No one is clamoring for Andy's little sister to get more screentime in Toy Story 4.

Hope this helps!

It depends on what kind of story you are trying to create. I find if you wish to write a children's book, the lesser the characters the better. But if you want people over the age of 9 to enjoy your stories it comes to the decision of 'what kind of story am I writing'.
Sorry if this isn't too helpful, I'm bad at explaining things

Going on ThatBackgroundSlytherin's response, don't delete characters that aren't working out for you - you'll regret it! Put them in a separate file/section/notebook etc. and you can come back and reuse/redevelop them later on.

If they serve no purpose to the plot, then they are unnecessary