Marlowe Reynolds was in complete control. She stood on a rooftop overlooking the assembly hall, taking note of each ambassador who walked in and out of the large, triangular gateway. Her list would be valuable. The Commodore wanted to know who was in the building at all times—who was present for votes and who skipped them. Who paid homage to the E…[Read more]

@anne_the_noob14 Aaahh, I see. In that case, I think I’ll bring in Marlowe just to test the waters. I need to get to know her character anyway. 😀 (I think I’ll try to write later tonight.)

As for Caedon, yes he is from the same world but unfortunately from a different timeline than the one in the book you’re beta-reading. There are several…[Read more]

@evelyn Solid advice! Thank you so much 🙂 I try to give each character a motive, a quirk and a desire as if they believe the story is about them, even if they’re only in one scene, so that they don’t fall flat. I think oftentimes where I fall short is their personal voice, but that’s something that I can fix through more practice. Your Orson…[Read more]

@allertingthbs Thank you! Your examples really help to put things into perspective!

Thank you! I was unsure because a few different people have told me (in passing) that I have too many characters, but I also know that, as you pointed out, some stories have many characters and some do not. It all depends on the plot proportions, writer’s preferences, audience, etc. I’m fine with keeping track of them all, so I suppose my only…[Read more]

@a_nna This is something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately, as my WIP is centered around a crew of nine people. I have yet to figure this out application to my story, but I think it largely depends on how you pull it off. Like @taylorclogston pointed out there’s a difference between whether they are part of the main cast of POV-providers or…[Read more]

@a_nna I don’t think that having many characters in your story is a bad thing, as long as you aren’t trying to divide the focus of the story into too many different directions. I’m going to use Avengers Endgame as an example.

I consider Iron Man, Captain America, and Thanos to be the focal characters of the Infinity saga. Just about every movie…[Read more]

That’s waaay too general a question. Fantasy is a huge collection of genres, and character count is vastly different for different purposes.

Like, the Stormlight books mention over 500 characters over the course of three (so far) books. Only like… five or six? Of those are main viewpoint characters, and for each one of those we have a handful…[Read more]

Thanks for the feedback! 😀

I’ve been considering making this first line its own paragraph, sort of like a tagline, since it’s more backstory/separate relevant information than part of the description of the plot? I don’t know if that would fix this problem or read weird (or both or neither), but I figured it’s worth mentioning as an idea.…[Read more]

I had an entire response and then I edited it and it vanished. O-o

I’ve been considering having this first line be its own paragraph, more like a tagline? Since it’s more backstory/relevant information than actually part of the description of the plot? I don’t know if that would fix this problem or read weird (or both or neither), but I figured I’d mention it.

If there isn’t, does it seem boring? :/ One of…[Read more]

@corine

Thank you for your input. I agree with using the same God and Holy Spirit; my issue is more how to portay Jesus. I don’t agree with neglecting the death and resurrection, as that is what redeems us.

Now, while my tale isn’t about the death and resurrection, if I want it to have Christianity, at some point the “Jesus figure” would’ve had…[Read more]

What. The heck. It’s still not working. I meant to suggest a synonym for insanity in the last paragraph to vary it. *facepalm* I don’t know why it’s doing this.

Gack, for some reason it wouldn’t let me put in one of my suggestions. Here’s the last paragraph again:

With the calligraphy guild in turmoil [delete comma] and Duyên’s ever-present fear of insanity clouding her vision, will the group be able to discover which of their guildmates has altered time before the dragons pass judgement on them al…[Read more]

@r-m-archer *jumps in* Hiya! I’m distinctly no expert in this area (I’m terrified of the time I’ll have to make a blurb for my WIP), but I’ll do my best to help ya out with what I’ve got! 😉 I’ll copy your blurb below and put my suggestions in bold.

Dragon ink allows writers to set history in stone—or to change it. [maybe a different s…[Read more]

@ariella-newheart

This is such a fun idea! I’d love to join. Can I only bring one character on here? And is it basically a long conversation between the different characters? Or an actual story?