Tuesday, February 28, 2023

HOW MANY NAMES IS TOO MANY?

 Some years back, a publishing professional suggested I not introduce so many characters by name in the first chapter.


I counted the names in chapter one of the manuscript. There were six fully named, plus three who were mentioned by function, not a name. (Think “her uncle” or “his teacher.”)


Was this too many? She was a publishing professional, so I revised. I found another way to introduce the named operators of the story. A technique I borrowed from a book I read when I was ten served its purpose. After all, the publishing professional specifically said young readers couldn’t hold that many names right off the bat, and bringing up Tolstoy’s War and Peace with his propensity to name hundreds of characters would not be a proper defense. Anyway, I was not writing an epic novel. This was a spy story for middle grade readers.

 

I remembered this advice, and have counted the number of characters introduced by name in the first chapter(s) ever since. No matter that an award-winning writer of middle grade novels ignores this advice, (not naming him. I like his books) and that less than lauded books I have read and respected don’t follow it. I’m not in their league, and so I heed this generally good guidance.

 

How many is too many? I try to name four or less. General advice is not to exceed ten to fifteen in the story as a whole. There will be time for other names to come in and go out. First chapters should focus on attachment to the main character. Many names will only serve to distance, and even not so young readers might close the book before they reach the second chapter.



7 comments:

Vijaya said...

Agreed. First chapters have to accomplish so much and too many named characters can be a distraction.

Evelyn said...

You are wise not to introduce too many character names at the very beginning. I've been turned off by books that do that.

MirkaK said...

Some novels I have read include a detailed list of characters. When it's a long list, I wonder whether I'll remember who everyone is, especially if the character doesn't appear frequently or isn't super crucial to the narrative. I remember how confounded I felt when I read those epic Russian classics. I kept thinking there was a cast of hundreds of characters until I finally learned that each person had at least a handful of nicknames. Whew!

Sherry Ellis said...

That seems like good advice. Even though I'm not a young kid, I still find introducing a lot of characters at the beginning of a story is a lot to keep track of.

Mirka Breen said...

Apropos this post, I just realized I didn't follow my own advice in my current WIP, so I went back and broke chapter one into two.
Good to pay attention, self :D

Sue said...

Now I want to go count character names in my WIP. ;-)

Thanks.

Sue

Barbara Etlin said...

That is so true. And the main reason I refuse to read Tolstoy. I have no trouble keeping track of characters in Dostoyevsky, so he must have limited his character names. In reading one YA novel--I've like other books by her--I remember starting to write a character list to keep track, then stopped myself and put down the book. Permanently. And avoided other books by her.