: Re: How to Write a Colossal Cast of Characters I'm planning a book series called The Weasel Sagas. Things have been going great up until now, where I've realized I've hit a bit of a problem:

It is neither necessary nor desirable to fit everything you've generated for a story into the story

In my reading I have encountered, broadly speaking, two different kinds of stories. There are tightly-plotted stories which attempt to resolve and give closure to every thread the author introduces. (The Westing Game comes to mind.) This is great.

On the other hand, there are stories with incredibly sophisticated backgrounds (like Lord of the Rings), where the author has volumes of supporting material which could not fit into the actual story. This is also great.

I suspect that, even in the tightly-plotted cases, a good author may have material which did not directly show up.

In the real world, there are endless subtle influences on your behavior which need not be explicitly included in a story, even if their unseen mass affects the orbital paths of those characters featured. I don't need to tell you how the size of my family as I grew up, or the relative wealth of my family, still influences my decisions at the grocery store - although knowing what kind of situation your character grew up in will help you generate a more interesting "shopping list," or whatever is needed in your story.

Let your larger universe add hidden texture to the few characters that fit into each tale, and don't worry that there isn't time or room to fit everything in right now

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: Re: How to Write a Colossal Cast of Characters I'm planning a book series called The Weasel Sagas. Things have been going great up until now, where I've realized I've hit a bit of a problem:

More posts by @Angela458

: Name of the technique where you show a tense scene in the beginning and then transitioning to a peaceful first chapter What do you call the writing technique that shows an incredibly tense

: What kind of protagonist or writing style is Jack Sparrow? I want to ask about a certain style on how to present a character. I know Jack Sparrow is from a movie (and I've only watched the

: Pairing poetry with original artwork: is this done? As a novice writer of poetry, I am eager to grow in my understanding of that mysterious line between complete abandon within freedom of expression,

: Seeking advice on editing process through integration into online poetry writing communities (Heavily edited in a sincere attempt to reduce subjectivity / instigation of unwieldy discussion or chattiness:)

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