How Many Characters Does Your Story Need?

If you're a fan of Stephen King, chances are you're at least familiar with the book The Stand. A novel about a majority of the human race being wiped out by a super flu (and doesn't that hit different after 2020?), it is a huge brick of a book even by the famous author's standards. Part of the reason for that is the absolutely massive size of the cast, which is kind of ironic, given that 99% of the world's population was wiped out by the plague early on in the story.

To fix this issue, Mr. King had an Event take place about 75% of the way through the book that drastically downsized the number of characters we were following. And while it was dramatic and pulse-pounding, the author later said that it was done more as a matter of practicality, because he'd allowed the cast to get so bloated it was becoming impossible to manage.

And if a problem like this can happen to one of the best-selling authors of our age, it's definitely something that can happen to you, too.

Look, brothers, we can't ALL be the chosen one...

Before we get into it this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron!

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How Much is Too Much?

An average book, or even a short story, is going to be filled with a lot of characters. From the waitstaff at restaurant scenes, to the cops manning the barricades at a murder investigation, to the arena full of sports fans during a climactic showdown between our lead and the terrorist they've been chasing, books are just crammed with characters... but a majority of them are going to be in the background. They're characters whose names we may never get, whose faces we may never really see, and who might not even get any dialogue in the story.

However, you aren't expecting your audience to remember those characters. Their motivations and backstories aren't going to affect the plot as it unfolds, and they aren't going to be personally tied to what's happening. They're supporting cast, who are there to provide information, keep a scene flowing naturally, or to provide the appropriate background while your leads drive the story forward.

No, the question you need to ask is what happens when your main cast gets too bloated, and it starts to become a problem.

Especially if you're trying to get a manageable word count.

The problem is, of course, that there is no hard-and-fast rule for when your cast of characters has grown too large. There are novel series with colossal cast lists, like A Song of Ice and Fire, and the character bloat doesn't seem to have hurt the readers' opinions of the work... but was it a feature, or a flaw?

As an example, considering the translation of Martin's books to the small screen provides us a lot of solid examples of characters either merging together, or characters who were less important being ignored in favor of maintaining a stronger, central core, with their actions being taken by one of our established, "main" characters.

For instance, Bronn ends up wearing a lot more hats in the show than he did in the book. While he was originally just Tyrion's bodyguard, he also took on the role of guard captain of King's Landing (a role which was originally filled by a character who was named, but rarely seen). There were also several moments where violence had been done by relatively unimportant characters that were instead given to him. One could argue that it was because the costs of a bigger cast are far more noticeable in a TV show, where a new actor has to be given a costume, choreography, lines, etc., and so it's just easier to use members of the cast who are already under contract, and whom the audience already knows. However, this has the side effect that it creates a tighter story, focusing the attention of your audience, and allowing them to get more invested into the characters you've already fleshed out.

As a general guideline, what I recommend is that you should always try to make your cast of main characters (your protagonist or protagonists, their immediate support characters, the villains, and their support staff) as tight as possible, without sacrificing anything. This is particularly true when it comes to important events, or things that happen onscreen in your book. If your lead is being framed for a crime, you could create a whole new character to come arrest them. However, if you've established they have a friend on the force, it would create greater resonance if that friend volunteers to perform the arrest in order to minimize resistance from your lead. Or if your lead has an enemy who's a cop, it heightens the drama to have them be the one who puts your protagonist in cuffs.

You shouldn't be afraid to add new characters as you need them... but keep in mind that there are characters, and then there are characters. If you just need someone to fill a role, say a few lines of dialogue, sell our protagonist a gun under the table, etc., that can be done by any of the former without much sweat. But if this is a character with a name, a face, and whose story you want your reader to know and empathize with, consider the investment you're asking of the person holding your book, and what the payoff is going to be.

Because if it feels like every character we meet is important, pretty soon it can feel like no one is important... even if you don't start killing them off every three chapters.

Support The Literary Mercenary

For folks who just want to do their part to help keep me making more content, please subscribe/follow me in these locations:

- My Facebook

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- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- My Daily Motion Channel (longer videos that won't show up on YouTube)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

Variety May Be The Spice of Life, But It Is Often Too Risky (As a Creator)

There is a cycle I've gone through several times as an author, and it sneaks up on me every time. In short, when I first get a new job, or enter a new niche, it's thrilling, exciting, and I have fun with it. Whether it's writing short stories, putting together newspaper articles, or working on TTRPG supplements, there's always a period in the beginning where it feels good to flex the creative muscles to accomplish a new task. Then the check comes, and it validates all of the effort I put in, giving me the fuel to get up and do it all over again.

With that said, though, it's really hard to keep doing the same thing day in, day out, with no changes in sight. And while it's an uncomfortable topic, I wanted to broach it today, because it's something that affects all of us who create professionally, and we're often not allowed to talk about it without sounding like we're ungrateful. However, I want to remind everyone that if you're doing the work, you have the right to complain. Period.

And this is something we ALL have to grapple with.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

The Grind, and "The Muse"

Have you seen the ARG from Happy Meat Farm? Well, in stage two this mysterious company that's conducting bizarre experiments started reaching out to various YouTubers with "sponsorship" opportunities. Those who accepted at first seemed to be doing great thanks to a strange "muse" who started dictating their content to them. While these creators were making money and getting the numbers they needed, most of them felt this was not the direction they wanted to go with their channels. The content was too socially engineered, too filled with clickbait, and too creatively hollow, even if it was paying the bills. In time these mysterious muses seemed to murder the creators, leaving clones of them behind who happily toed the line, delivered the content they were told to, and had no ambitions to do something other than what their corporate masters told them to.

Game Theory had a great video on it, in case you didn't see it.

What does this have to do with this week's topic? Well, everything, since you ask.

Because artists of all kinds (writers, YouTubers, audio dramatists, animators, etc.) are stuck living under capitalism the same as everyone else, that means we have to find ways to monetize our skills and abilities to make art that people want to consume. And when we're faced with the option between a project that we think would be exciting and fulfilling, and one that is likely to pay the bills, we often have to go with the latter simply because we cannot afford the former if it turns out the thing we want to make has low prospects for actually keeping the lights on.

And because I can hear throats clearing in the comments, and the future echo of people saying, "Just work on those passion projects in your free time..." you're grossly overestimating the amount of freedom and juice most of us have. Because if an artist has the energy, time, and ability to handle the "pay the bills" projects on one hand, and to work on longer-shot projects that are more fulfilling on the other hand, they do not have a problem.

Most of us, though, have both hands full with pay-the-bills work. We spend all day, every day working on it, and when the day is done we have nothing left except for a couple of fumes in the tank to maybe jot a couple of ideas into a notebook, or maybe sketch a concept or two. We simply cannot do more than that because there are only so many hours in the day, and only so many actions your brain can take before the quality of your output degrades, or your brain simply refuses to do more.

What Can Help Avoid This Problem?

The best solution would be the fall of capitalism so that artists could just make art without having to worry about the twin threats of starvation and homelessness if they don't make a certain amount of sales/reads/views every month. Failing that, though, the best practical solution would be if folks listened to the advice that Mat Pat gives at the end of that video about the muses and the Happy Meat Farms ARG.

In short, when a creator you like tries something new, or does something different, audiences should support them if they want to encourage them to keep making things. You aren't obligated to automatically love everything a creator makes, but if their new book, new podcast, new show, etc., seems like something you wouldn't normally go for, give it a try. See if you like it, and do all the things a creator needs from their audience to keep them moving forward (buy copies, make donations, share stuff on social media, read articles, watch videos, and so on).

Numbers matter, and the easiest way for you to help the creators you love avoid burnout is to make sure they have enough money on-hand that they can try new things, or that experimenting with a new format, new genre, etc., isn't going to land them on the street because they didn't pull in a certain amount of sales, views, etc. Because if the only thing that ever gets support is one type of content, then that's all a creator can afford to make if they don't want to come up short at the end of the month.

Getting Personal About This Problem

The reason I wanted to talk about this topic is that it's been creeping up on me for a while now, and a lot of the time I want to use this platform (small as it is) to talk about issues I'm facing as a professional. Especially if they're issues that other writers might consider personal failings, or just try to endure because they don't want to be seen as complaining too much.

A soldier's privilege is to grumble, though, and we're all mercenaries here.

Folks who are familiar with my work know that the bulk of my output these days is tabletop RPG supplements, which typically take the form of some kind of numbered list. Whether it's more general supplements like 100 Fantasy Professions (That Aren't "Adventurer") and 100 Knightly Orders For a Sci Fi Setting, or more specific ones like 100 Shadow Names (And Their Meanings) for Mage The Awakening, that format is the dominant one.

And the reason is because that's the product that sells. Full stop.

I would love to write more short fiction, like what I did for the Werewolf: The Apocalypse collection Tales From The Moot, or even more free stories like 50 Two-Sentence Horror Stories, Cthulhu Mythos Edition. I'd love to write more novels like my sword and sorcery book Crier's Knife, and I wouldn't even mind putting together additional gaming modules like my recent piece The Price of Iron where players take on a dark fey threat in the middle of a major city. I've also been steadily releasing content for an entire fantasy setting titled "Sundara: Dawn of a New Age," and I've been putting out audio dramas for over a year now.

At the end of the day, though, what moves copies is numbered lists of random stuff. So that is what always takes priority.

What brought all of this to something of a head for me is "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic". This RPG is on Kickstarter for one more week, and though we've met our minimum funding goal, I was really hoping to at least make it to the first stretch goal. This game has been several years in the making, and it's nearly been killed twice in pre-production. I have all kinds of plans for expansions, additional rules, new enemies, and all manner of ridiculous, tongue-in-cheek nonsense for it... but I need folks' help to make that a reality.

Because I think this game has a lot of potential... but it's going to be really hard for me to actually explore that potential (and create more content for it) if I have to devote a majority of my time and energy to writing even more supplements for other genres, other game lines, etc. because those are what pay my bills.

If you could back this KS, I would really appreciate it. If you can't, or if you already have, please help me spread the word about it so we can reach more fresh sets of eyeballs. And if you're reading this article in the future after the campaign is over, consider searching for Army Men on Drive Thru RPG, and getting yourself a copy... hopefully future me got the support he needed to write some of those extra expansions I've got in my notes!

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing!

If you'd like to see more of my work, take a look at my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects!

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

3 Tips For Writing as Part of a Team

Most people tend to think of writing as a solitary profession. You have an idea, you lock yourself away in your study, and you live off of coffee and energy drinks until a book pours its way out of you. However, sometimes you may be working on a project that's too big for one person. Maybe you've only got a narrow window of time, or you're working on something that has a lot of moving parts like a series, a roleplaying game, etc. Or maybe you just want to team up with someone else to share a collaborative experience.

Whatever the motivation, though, I'd recommend taking the following tips to heart before starting any kind of group writing endeavor. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

It isn't as easy as you might think.

Before we get into it this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron!

Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Tip #1: Establish A Shared Vision

This sounds obvious, but even if you think you're both on the same page, take some time to sit down and discuss your project in-depth with one another. Everything from what lines you do and don't want to cross, to what genre you want it to be, to what specific format you're looking for. Everything from what word count you're looking at for a novel, to what kind of time slot you want to fill for a screen or audio play, to whether you want the setting to be grim and gritty, darkly satirical, or if you want your characters to use curse words.

If there's more than two of you working on a project, you might want to consider a story or show bible, which has all the rules of your setting/world/project, and which ensures everyone is given the same set of guidelines to follow. Typically there will also be a timeline for writers to keep in mind so that they can ensure their contributions are staying in the lines set by previous canon, as well... in case you're working on something big.

Tip #2: Have Regular Check-Ins

As someone who's been part of several writing teams for tabletop RPGs, and who is collaborating on a project that I'm not at liberty to discuss right now, this is key for avoiding a lot of frustration and editing. Because it's one thing to have a similar vision in your mind, but it's another thing to go off and write up your episode, your chapter, your section, etc., and then to turn it in only to find out that it isn't going to mesh with the project as a whole. So you have to go back and re-write it, potentially more than once.

To prevent this from happening, communicate with one another, and make sure that you are all hitting the same wavelength when it comes to the project. Share samples of your writing to be sure they're fitting together with the project as a whole, and that the seams between who contributed what parts and pieces aren't going to be obvious to your audience. While this might take a little getting used to (especially if you're someone who likes to be left alone until the job is done), it's definitely worth the amount of saved frustration.

Tip #3: Agree on Power Dynamics

Everyone working on a collaboration should have the same goal; to finish the project, and to make it as good as possible. However, there can often be a lot of back and forth when it comes to artistic decisions, style choices, etc. when there isn't a clear, spoken (or even written) agreement as to who on this team has what authority when it comes to enacting their will on the project.

As an example, if you're an equal partner with someone, then both of you need to agree on any changes, choices, etc., so that the resulting project gets both your seals of approval. Alternatively, you might have someone who contributes their time, energy, and vision to a project, but another member of the team is the one with final approval on creative choices, layout, etc. If you have a large enough team, maybe you enact a democratic solution and bring issues to a vote if there's disagreements during development.

There's no wrong way to do this, as long as everyone is comfortable, and feels this arrangement works for them. But it's important to discuss it before you get too deep into the project, or you'll find someone who thought they were an equal partner finding out that someone else thought of themselves as the head designer with final say, and that can lead to rather serious problems.

Speaking of Writing as Part of a Team...

For folks who haven't heard the news, my RPG "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic" is currently on Kickstarter! While I did the bulk of the writing, I've been working with the fine folks at High Level Games to try to make it a reality. So check out the promo video, and consider backing this RPG, or helping us reach our stretch goals so that I can keep expanding this world in the future!

Support The Literary Mercenary

For folks who just want to do their part to help keep me making more content, please subscribe/follow me in these locations:

- My Facebook

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- My Daily Motion Channel (longer videos that won't show up on YouTube)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!