: Re: Is it ok to have many characters who only appear for a few chapters? At least 40% of the characters in my novel appear for only 2-3 chapters and I don't really have the chance to develop

@Gonzalez219

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I have characters in every chapter that have personalities, and often significant and lengthy communications with the main character. They don't appear again, they are basically in the place where the MC meets them, and she is on a journey or quest of some sort. So she talks to them for awhile, they may show her something, she may do a favor for them.

I think this is realistic. People know other people, they can have conversations with them. When I am out in the world (not chained to a keyboard) I know by name the waitresses at the coffee shop I go to, for some of them I know the names of their kids and their ages. Same with my neighbors.

It would be strange, I think, to go on a quest and not have any conversations with the locals. Half the time, you are explicitly looking for somebody that knows something, or trying to find records with somebody that keeps them. You're not traveling from Miami to Chicago for nuthin', there is someone or something in Chicago you need to see, and if it is something, there is probably someone there guarding it, or keeping the records, or that can help you understand the something.

The more my MC has to interact with a character, the more time I invest in thinking about that person's personality and attitudes, and how I can create conflict with my MC to keep the story from getting boring. (You can't just deliver the information, you need to make it hard won.)

Don't worry about walk-ons, or characters with a limited window of appearance. Make them realistic in proportion to their importance and time "on the screen".

Not every character that you think should be naturally important is actually important. If you watch "Sleepless In Seattle", notice that Meg Ryan is actually engaged to some guy for most of the movie, and in the end dumps him. Analytically you might think that her fiancé should be an important character, but he gets very little screen time and is pretty much a cardboard cutout, he only exists to create a conflict for Meg (or a more dramatic moment of decision and commitment when she decided to dump him). The same can go for parents, siblings, lovers, etc. An important character influences the MC and their course (positively or negatively), even if present for only half a chapter, or a few chapters. Important characters should feel like real people. Walk-ons and Extras don't need much development, they are necessary for realism (as Rasdashan says, the E.R. isn't empty) but don't need any personality; there are four men at a table in the bar playing nickel poker to pass the time.

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