Is 4 main characters too much?

The short answer is: no such number exists. You can include as many characters in your novel as you want to. It’s your story, and there’s no rule book you need to follow on how to write a great story. The creative process is yours to own.

Can you have 10 main characters?

Fantasy and science fiction can have upwards of 10 to 20 main characters. Every gene is different and every story is different.

Can a book have multiple main characters?

So can you write a story with more than one main character? The short answer is: yes. You can write your novel any way you like, so long as it works in practice. Many writers, especially those writing in genres such as fantasy and sci-fi, have multiple main characters in their novels.

How many characters is too many in a short story?

There’s no right or wrong number of characters in a short story, but there are general principles that tend to work better. In my practice, I find the shorter the story the fewer the characters. In a story of 1000 words or less, I like to use at most two characters.

How many chapters should a novel have?

Most novels have between 10 to 12 chapters, but that’s not set in stone. You can have two chapters or 200 — it all depends on how comfortable you are with experimenting. Consider your dear reader.

How many main characters should a TV show have?

Consider how many characters you will feature. Typically 4 or 5 with a stronger ‘lead’ character seems to work. Pick a handful of shows and check for yourself.

How many main characters are in a story?

In essence, there are only two characters that any story needs – the Protagonist and the Antagonist. All other characters are secondary or peripheral. They will either be relatable or connected to the protagonist or the antagonist in some way.

What is the second main character called?

deuteragonist
The definition of a deuteragonist (from the Greek deuteragōnistēs, for “second actor”) is the second most important and present character in a story—often called a secondary main character.

How many characters should your novel have?

A good rule of thumb might be: Include as many characters as needed to tell the story and evoke the proper style and scope—and no more. For intimate novels, this number might be as small as 2-5 secondary characters, and for broader stories, this number might be 20-30.

Do novels have fewer or more characters than stories?

The fact is that any novel needs a certain number of secondary and peripheral characters who have a function within the story. That amount can be anything from 20 or 30 characters. That seems a lot when seen in those terms, but spread over an 80,000 – 90,000 word novel, it’s a fairly average number.

How long should a book chapter be?

between 3,000 to 5,000 words
As a general guideline, chapters should be between 3,000 to 5,000 words. All of them agree that the chapter length should be defined by the story and that any chapter length targets you decide on are merely guidelines.

How many characters is too many in a story?

Nine is possibly too many characters period, depending on the length of the story. The number of main characters in your story increases the complexity of the story exponentially, as you have to deal with all of the characters and all of their interactions with each other.

How many characters should you have in a novel?

While there can be no definitive number, there are some relatively concrete rules to deciding how many characters you should be using. Before discussing how many characters you need, it’s important to identify the different types of character which are available: The primary, or main, characters drive the story.

How many protagonists are too many in a novel?

The protagonist is traditionally the person driving the story, and while you can have multiple main and important characters, 16 protagonists does sound like too many to me. Even with four books, that’s 16 people trying to be the hero, and you’ll likely end up with 16 different “books” in one series.

What’s the point of having multiple main characters?

The point of having multiple main characters is to allow your story to expand geographically. But you may find, as I did, that eventually your perspective characters wind up in the same scene. Then from whose perspective do you tell it?