How to Create A Strong Cast of Characters

by Stephanie Morrill

Stephanie writes young adult novels and is the creator of GoTeenWriters.com. Her novels include The Reinvention of Skylar Hoyt series and the Ellie Sweet books. You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and check out samples of her work on her author website including the free novella, Throwing Stones.


Today we're kicking off the first of our monthly challenges! I'm keeping my notebook close at all times, how about you? You can still get signed up to participate here, but I'll be closing the sign-up sheet soon.

One of the ideas I had recently came after listening to a podcast about Sir Isaac Newton, who I knew about in a vague kind of way but I couldn't have told you much. Turns out, he was a really quirky guy, and I thought, "Wouldn't it be fun to create a character inspired by him?"

Really quirky characters are fun to write, but they can often be too difficult for an audience to relate to if you cast them as a main character. (Yes, main characters should have quirks, and yes there are many successful stories that have very quirky main characters. So this is just an observation, not a rule.) But I love off-beat side characters like Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter or Noah from The Raven Boys.

Many writers love creating characters, so it's no surprise that I'm frequently asked this question:

How many characters should a book have?

This question doesn't have a simple answer because every story is different and some genres require more characters (epic fantasy springs to mind) than others.

The temptation to add superfluous characters is pretty common. For me, I rarely plan out characters before my first draft. While writing, I add them as I feel the need, and I always tend to add a few too many and have to cut back in edits. Here's how I make each character matter:

Strive for balance.

Sometimes I've read stories where it doesn't feel like there are too many characters to keep track of ... yet it still feels like there are too many characters. A lot of times that happens because the cast lacks diversity. I'm not talking just about race or heritage, but rather opinions, backstory, and purpose.

Opinions: The main character should be surrounded by people who have different opinions. Using Harry Potter as an example, Harry, Ron, and Hermione often disagree on how to go about things. This makes their conversations more robust and builds tension.

In backstory: I love how J. K. Rowling gave Harry, Ron, and Hermione such diverse backgrounds. Ron is from an old wizarding family, which means he can help explain to Harry (and the readers) how everything works. Hermione comes from a non-magical family and is discriminated against by some of the other students. These are both a good balance to Harry who has wizard parents but wasn't raised in the wizarding world.

Giving your characters different backstories will automatically help diversify their voices and perspectives.

In purpose: We'll talk about this more in the next point, but characters should fill unique roles and serve the story in different ways. This isn't about filling in all the right spots (the best friend, the love interest, the mentor, etc.) but rather making sure that each character is pulling their own weight.

While there are a variety of antagonists in the Harry Potter books, they antagonize him in different ways and from different social situations. We don't need two teachers or scads of Hogwarts students antagonizing Harry—Snape and Draco Malfoy do their jobs nicely.

One way to make sure you're not cluttering up the story with too many characters who have the same purpose is this:

Give every important character a goal.

I'm not talking about the barista character who's in one coffee house scene and is never mentioned by name. I'm talking about the characters who have a stake in what's going on. 

When my agent read my latest book, she said, "You have a lot of characters, and it's tough to keep track of them all. I want you to go back through your story and figure out what each character's primary goal is. Why are they doing what they're doing? What is motivating them?"

I did this, and then did one more round of edits before we started shopping the book.

Recently, I received my content edits from my editor. I beamed when I saw, "Even your more minor characters show a great deal of depth. It can be challenging to have a large cast of characters, but you handle them deftly and make sure that they stay true to their natures while still growing as the novel progresses."

I immediately emailed my agent to thank her for her advice.

Taking time to consider the each character's goal and primary motivator makes for a smart and purposeful cast of characters.

Combine where you can

In real life, we know lots and lots of people. We have teachers and hair dressers and pharmacists and neighbors and band friends and church friends and theater friends and so forth. 

In a book, that's just way too many characters. Try to combine where you can. The barista can also the best friend's boyfriend. The neighbor friend is also in band, the school play, and youth group. Maybe that's not very "real" but it means your reader will be able to keep up.

Who are some of your favorite side characters?