: 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:

@Kristi637

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Look for models of stories with a colossal cast you can use as a model for your series. Many books use the device of a story within a story in order to go off on tangents.
One example of a book that uses this well is Astrea. It is a long text with a long plot and 273 (!) characters, but it manages to follow one or two main plotlines for the most part, while the exploits of the other characters are often relegated to stories which are narrated by the characters of the main plot.
The outline of the text might look something like this:

Chapter 1
(Main Plot)
Chapter 2
(Main Plot)
Story
(Side Plot)
Chapter 3
(Main Plot)

Clearly marking which sections are essential can help avoid making your reader confused. If there are sections which are of interest for reasons of character but not for plot (i.e., that the reader can skip without missing out on plot development), they should be marked as such so as not to leave your readers bored if they are not interested in those stories.

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