Writing Tips & Guidance

Character: Recognizing & Cutting Unnecessary Characters

We've all read a book in which a character spoke up after a time and we were surprised they were there at all. They hadn't really done a lot, said a lot, or really mattered at all. Sure, they might be cool, but other characters are cool too. These are unnecessary characters, and ones you should eliminate from a story before completion.

How to tell if your story has too many characters: 

- Beta readers are unable to keep track of your characters. If you or a beta reader feels like a character index would make things easier, then you need to cut characters. Most people are not George RR Martin.

- Your sections are broken by character to character, as they should be. There shoudn't be massive amounts of sections between the main character's sections. Say you use chapters, you should aim to never have more than three between your main character's story. Of course, there are tons of exceptions to this method, but generally three or fewer sections is a good goal.

- Not every character has something to do. Not every character has a cool/necessary moment in a scene every now and then. That means they are useless baggage that has to go, no matter how much you love them. Pull them out and set them aside for another story.

- Niche abilities are repeated. In D&D terms, you've found that your party is composed of all one class. Too many cooks in the kitchen means there's nothing happening in the rest of the house. 

- You kill too many characters and introduce too many characters so you can kill them later. Readers won't be able to develop attachments to them all, and won't be affected by their death. Example: Attack on Titan

- A character serves only one purpose, like the classic romantic interest damsel in distress. In fact, it appears that many of your characters only serve one purpose. Perhaps you should cut or splice some.

- For some reason, you've mentioned every soldier in the barracks and worker in the office building. In a small-scale setting, knowing every person by name is reasonable. However, in large-scale settings and situations, it would be unreasonable to assume the protagonist or reader could remember every character.

- Does every character name start with the same set of letters, contain the same sound, or have a similar length? That might be confusing for anyone not keeping detailed notes, especially quick readers.

- When a story returns to a sub-plot, it can be confusing to recall what is happening, why it matters, or who is included. Probably because it doesn't matter all that much to the story. Cut them and the subplot. 

- Characters in scenes "disappear" because they're overshadowed by more vocal, plot-moving characters. This doesn't mean cut every introverted character, just give introverted characters "screen time" if you put them in your story. 

- It begins to feel like the separate storylines are becoming two different books slammed together in a not-so-complimentary way.

- Side characters don't help or harm the main characters. In fact, they don't really meet them at all. 

- Characters are lost in the shuffle and never mentioned again. This could mean that you neglected to write them out properly, completing the purpose of their appearance in the story, or that they were forgotten. The latter is a sure sign too many characters are struggling for your attention. The former is a fixable failing, but may also be indicative of a cast-size issue.

Here are some guidelines for keeping/removing characters:

- Each character mentioned should impact the story or offer something (like information or an item) for the main characters to drive the story forward.

- Each character should have something that makes them different. A detail or quirk that can be mentioned upon their appearance or mention that ques the readers as to who is speaking. None of these should be the exact same.

- Each character should have a goal.

How to fix a situation in which too many characters are present:

-  Combine the important parts of a minor character with another minor character or a major character, either what makes them cool/unique or what they have to offer for the story.

- If you've written them into your first draft, go back in your first edit and mark where they appear as dead-weight and where they appear as useful, driving forces. Then you have two options. (1) Remove the character completely and have another character take up the necessary traits and tasks. (2) If all of their usefulness is clumped into one portion of the story, only have them appear in that section.

- Kill off the character when they've served their purpose. Do it right. Make it meaningful and impactful.

- Retire the character. Perhaps they get hurt and can't carry on. Perhaps they develop a tie to a certain location and opt to stay behind. Whatever you choose to do, make sure it is stated and reasonably foreshadowed/lead up to.

- Have the character make a major change or reveal something major about the character. Of course, you could turn an ally into an enemy if you wanted. As long as the character is different enough that they impact the story in some way (which they hadn't before or ceased doing so), then you've achieved a large enough change. 

- Change the character's name. Make it different from others that appear around it. Otherwise, it will blend in and be confusing. Perhaps even worse, they won't be noticed at all.

- Tie in every character to the main character's story. After all, the book is the main character's story. If a character doesn't tie into the book/the main character's story, cut them.

- Answer some questions about your characters: Why is the character there? What do they do? What information are you providing through this character? Do they drive the story or create obstacles? If a character overlaps in what they do or the information they provide with another character, cut one or splice the two together. If the character fails to drive the story or create obstacles, cut them.

Examples:

Of course, the massive, majorly successful series Game of Thrones serves as an example exception. It is an amazing, artful dance of characters coming and going all in one intricate and interesting piece.

However, the also massive, fairly successful series The Wheel of Time serves as an example that really could have cut some characters. Arguably half or more of the characters in the series could have been cut. It got really out of hand, and too many characters were too alike. Still, a good series with a really interesting take on magic. It just really suffered from a surplus in the character department, so much so that really cool characters were dropped and forgotten (poor Matt).