Have you ever heard the phrase ‘all Asians look alike?’
I am a victim of this stereotype. Well, maybe I just have a lot of experience
getting confused with other people.
Growing up, I had two sisters that were close to me in
age. We were just known as ‘the sisters’
by those who didn’t know us well. We had
similar expressions, mannerisms and habits.
In fact, one of our neighbors told us that if we were all “the same
height and width” we could be “twins”. I
guess we blended in so well that he didn’t even realize there were 3 of us!
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| The 'sisters' as teenagers |
One summer, when we spent a week or so at my grandparents’
house, we spent a lot of time with a cousin we rarely saw. He had a hard time keeping us straight and we
didn’t make it any easier for him. Every
time he’d ask us to tell him our names, we’d rotate, never giving the same name
twice in a row. We even got our littlest
sister involved, but she couldn’t keep it straight after a while. It took him years to learn our actual names.
For most of my life, I was one of the exchangeable
sisters. If one couldn’t, the others
wouldn’t do. People would call my mom,
asking if one of us could babysit – it didn’t matter which. We even had boys date two or more of us.
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| The Sisters as adults - with the little sister as well |
In life, having “exchangeable” people is confusing, but in
life, it can be downright annoying.
Have you ever read a book where you wondered why one of the
characters exist because they have the same function and personality as
another?
I tend to start my stories with large casts. Sometimes I had almost 50 characters roaming
around. Of course, I could keep them
straight, but no one else could. I was
told to cut some of my characters because the story was too cluttered.
I have to say, that was quite a brutal experience, and I
spent many an agonizing brainstorming session trying to figure out how. I knew where the characters needed to be cut,
so I started with the obvious. A
daughter who didn’t have a significant role, a man who appeared 2 scenes then
never was heard of again. But then, I
had to cut one of my most favorite characters.
I spent drafts expanding her story, getting to know and understand
her. But those scenes weren’t necessary
to the story.
Once I cut it down to the absolutely necessary characters, I
realized how clear everything was. I had
the chance to expand on characters who had a bigger role later in the story.
So now, as I write, I ask myself – can these characters be
interchanged? Are they even necessary to
the story? And more often than not, I
find one or two that have to be cut.
Krista, I have this problem. I seem to write whole villages when I'm writing. To me, they aren't interchangeable, but it tends to be cluttered. Any tricks on what worked for you to pair down?
ReplyDeleteI have a very similar problem when writing, especially when it makes sense to have that many people - at least in my head. The biggest thing that has helped me is to decide which characters contribute and with ones don't. I've had to go through and cut 1/3 of my characters because, although they play a role, they don't have any effect on the final outcome of the MC's journey (whether it be internal or external). I've also had to combine a few characters as well, even though they're not identical, but one person can clearly play both parts. For example, I had my MC sold into a household where there was her master, his daughter and the person in charge of servants. All of them had a very different role, and were very different people, but they had the same purpose. They were all there to make her life miserable. I ended up getting rid of the daughter because there were too many antagonists to really focus the MC's focus. Then whatever she did to terrorize the MC, I made sure one of the other two characters did.
DeleteI agree, characters can usually be cut. If a person doesn't add to the story, or move it along, cut him/her out.
ReplyDeleteI've never understood why Lord of the Rings needed both Merry and Pippin. Isn't one enough? I suspect it was just to make up the Fellowship to 9, matching the Nazgul, and that's not a good enough reason for me.
I had a hard time keeping all of the LOTR characters straight. Even in the movies. Though I have to say, I liked both Merry and Pippin. They kind of reminded me of Fred and George in Harry Potter. Basically one person since they're always together.
DeleteI think there was purpose beyond that. For one it balanced the Frodo/Sam pairing, so when they split there are two hobbits going in each direction. Merry and Pippin are a much more cheerful pairing also; a little too similar in character, but able to chatter away merrily with each other and entertain in a way that one hobbit alone could not. Most importantly, having both Merry and Pippin allows the reader to get to know both Minas Tirith and the Riders of Rohan - with the bonus of confusing Sauron over which of the two actually has the ring.
DeleteSo, yes, their characters are similar, but there are important reasons to have both.
In terms of unnecessary characters, the classic example of course is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Hamlet - which was made brilliant fun of by Tom Stoppard in 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'.
I like that idea of Merry and Pippin being a balance for Frodo and Sam. And it's true, two people can keep their spirits up much easier than one (as long as they're both trying).
DeleteThanks for your comment!
Funny thing happened to me once. I had an awesome character in my first draft. Then later on, an even better one came along. So I cut the first one.
ReplyDeleteBut in the rewrites, the first one returned, except this time, he was a complete and utter ass.
Guess that happens when you let imaginary people live in your head...
I had a random character walk in and try to take over in a draft. It took two or three more drafts to completely irradiate him. And yet, he keeps trying to jump in. And the kicker? His name was Folder.
DeleteI love all of your writing blurbs, they seem to coincide with things I'm thinking of.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently working on an apocalyptic novel (I know, jumping on the bandwagon but when inspiration hits, it knocks out) and I have 10 main characters! Fortunately, since it's apocalyptic, I have many of them die. But I have recently been pondering the same question. Thanks for the thoughts!
Thank you!
DeleteWow 10 MCs! At first, I read that as 10 characters, and I was going to say that you were doing pretty well. Usually I have 1-3 MC's but when it comes to the supporting cast... well, there's enough to fill a city sometimes.
Haha mostly I have so many because my main story is about a scouting group post-apocalypse. I initially only had 5 - that's my nice number. Two main love interests and a couple of people to keep it interesting, but my husband pointed out that they would never send an official scouting group out to survive in the world in a group smaller than 10. That's how I ended up so big! I suppose there are still only about 5 of them that are in depth, because as I said - a few people have to die or it's not realistic. But they are all pretty important to the group dynamic and the story's movement.
DeleteAhh, that makes sense. It's kind of like in my Red WIP, I have a whole bunch of orphans running around, but I'm getting to the point where I have about 4 main ones out of the 10-11 total. Though I do try to give them all a chance to shine every once in a while.
DeleteI usually pare down the cast during prewrites. I'll have siblings that are well developed in my notes, but only mentioned in passing in the actual story. My biggest issue with this was when I really wanted to include a characters arc for the sole purpose of expanding the world. There were aspects of my world that the main characters weren't exploring or using because it didn't suit their skills, but a secondary character really delved into the other side of the magic. I had to cut her out because she really didn't move the plot forward or illuminate the main characters. I came up with a whole story arc around her for the second story in the series. I guess she just had to wait her turn.
ReplyDeleteWow Mary! I don't think I get that into depth with very many of my characters, but it sounds like you have a great spinoff story with that character! I've had that where the characters are so alive, but don't play a part in the story, so I had to write a new one. :)
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