The Magnificent Seven
I am presently listening to the audiobook of East of Eden. Something tells me I ought to be forbearing. Isn’t this one of those classic bucket list novels?
But right now I’m being pummelled by yet another salvo of characters (9 members of the same family), with little respite from those who have come before.
I may need to search for and print off a copy of the cast – although I’m worried about inadvertently unearthing a spoiler.
For whodunits I prefer paperbacks so that I can write inside the cover, names as they crop up, along with any suspicious traits or behaviour. It is a relief to be able to refer back when someone re-emerges – though I am still quite hopeless at finding the perpetrator.
Logging the characters is trickier when it comes to an audiobook. Pausing is problematic. You might be driving. And what exactly was the spelling?
This got me thinking about books I have marked DNF (did not finish, as the saying goes). Three examples:
1) LA Confidential by James Ellroy, 40 characters mentioned in first 15 pages.
2) A Dark Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine (aka Ruth Rendell), 37 characters by 10% thru.
3) Mrs McGinty’s Dead by Agatha Christie (which I did actually finish but only with frequent recourse to my notes), 19 characters.
So, how many characters in a novel is too many?
When I worked in marketing, I would quote to my clients Sir Walter Scott (no slouch himself, when it came to verbosity) – he usefully stated, “We should not disregard the time and patience of our audience.”
I would go further, and add the memory capacity of our audience.
Writing copy for ads, I used to remind myself of this finding from research:
“Retention declines when the number of words in a sentence exceeds seven.”
While it is tempting cheekily to observe, why take twelve words to say it? – I think the lesson from advertising is persuasive. And there are other authoritative studies that suggest, for optimum learning, 7 plus or minus 2 is the range in which to operate.
After all, if it’s good enough for colours of the rainbow, days of the week, dwarves, seas and sins, surely seven characters is plenty for a competent author to be getting on with?
But right now I’m being pummelled by yet another salvo of characters (9 members of the same family), with little respite from those who have come before.
I may need to search for and print off a copy of the cast – although I’m worried about inadvertently unearthing a spoiler.
For whodunits I prefer paperbacks so that I can write inside the cover, names as they crop up, along with any suspicious traits or behaviour. It is a relief to be able to refer back when someone re-emerges – though I am still quite hopeless at finding the perpetrator.
Logging the characters is trickier when it comes to an audiobook. Pausing is problematic. You might be driving. And what exactly was the spelling?
This got me thinking about books I have marked DNF (did not finish, as the saying goes). Three examples:
1) LA Confidential by James Ellroy, 40 characters mentioned in first 15 pages.
2) A Dark Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine (aka Ruth Rendell), 37 characters by 10% thru.
3) Mrs McGinty’s Dead by Agatha Christie (which I did actually finish but only with frequent recourse to my notes), 19 characters.
So, how many characters in a novel is too many?
When I worked in marketing, I would quote to my clients Sir Walter Scott (no slouch himself, when it came to verbosity) – he usefully stated, “We should not disregard the time and patience of our audience.”
I would go further, and add the memory capacity of our audience.
Writing copy for ads, I used to remind myself of this finding from research:
“Retention declines when the number of words in a sentence exceeds seven.”
While it is tempting cheekily to observe, why take twelve words to say it? – I think the lesson from advertising is persuasive. And there are other authoritative studies that suggest, for optimum learning, 7 plus or minus 2 is the range in which to operate.
After all, if it’s good enough for colours of the rainbow, days of the week, dwarves, seas and sins, surely seven characters is plenty for a competent author to be getting on with?
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Yes, that's a fair observation. I guess I'm at the wrong end of the spectrum and not so good with names. At events I use the memory technique of creating images for people's names (in some cases they would be mortified if they knew what I am picturing!).
The older I get the less I want to read Scandinavian mysteries in translation that have 7 characters all with similar names - Siri, Sigrid, Signe, Stig, Sigurd - for example. So...writers who may end up in translation, please be careful what you name your characters! But I love a good mystery so I'll persevere.Re other books with multiple characters...even those lists of characters, a throwback to the Agatha Christie generation, don't help. I tend to do the same as you and imagine what they look like.
But, I have seen plots filled with information that seemed to go in circles. Those are confusing for me.
Do you think the way information is presented now....I call it the Sesame Street method...has something to do with what people want? If we have all the facts put out there in a few short minutes before topics change, we should not be surprised if people are familiar and comfortable with that method.
Thanks for the post.