Too many characters in a book can overburden the story and truthfully every time you add a character who is a point of view you are adding between one hundred and a hundred and fifty pages to your manuscript. In my Imperials Saga I’ve had four characters in two of the books which for me is a lot of characters. I usually keep it to two or three at the most.
But now I am working on the final Imperials book, and it struck me that I might want to have a POV from Boho’s chief of staff because while there are wars breaking out all over the ultimate solution is political and he’s an operative. However if I do that I will have gone to five point of view characters, and that’s a lot. So my option is to forget about this guy, or drop another POV. As I look over the landscape the only one I could drop would be my alien character and I’m reluctant to do that — Jahan is fun to write. No way can I drop Boho when he’s about to find out… well I won’t say in case people stop by and read the blog who haven’t yet read THE HIDDEN WORLD.
The issue is that Anselmo will have to become a fully fleshed out person. It might not be in the prose, but I’ll need to know his backstory, his family situation. Given my culture he’s married, has children. Right now he can just be the loyal henchman, once we’re in his head he’ll have hopes, dreams, aspirations, fears and feuds.
I might need to go take a walk and see if Anselmo turns up to give me some insight into his character.
And of course there’s another alien who has been a favorite of mine and the readers and maybe he/she/it should have more to say in this final book.
Decision. Decisions.
(But what fun. Yes, this is why I love being a writer.)
