Writing a story with Loads and Loads of Characters

Anyone else here trying to aim for Loads And Loads Of Characters when it comes to writing a story? I'm writing a series that is grand in scale and takes place all over the world, so naturally this trope is a requirement. Otherwise, it would make the population seem oddly small and it would involve The Main Characters Do Everything, which always breaks my Suspension of Disbelief. Personally I've been planning out my story for several years, and there are numerous characters involved that I've developed overtime. In my first two books the casts are much smaller — about 20 in each book not counting minor characters. However, conflict breaks out and the number of characters subsequently multiplies. Overall, I'm looking at over 200 characters throughout my series. I'll admit, it's easier to write a story when working with a smaller cast. However, I wasn't looking for an "easy" task when I undergone writing my series. I wanted to have scale, in order to have a world that actually felt populated.

What kind of scale are you guys going for with your stories, and how many characters do you think you'll have? Overall, what are your thoughts on the use of this trope?

The rule I've always followed is, one or two "round" characters (they drive your story), a handful of flatter characters (who provide background and/or fodder for expansion in any sequels), and background characters with a name and a line and not always both or either.

(That last group is how you populate a world, incidentally.)

This forces you to focus on characterization to drive the story along. I prefer to show how a group of people react to an event, each of them a little different even if they reach consensus. That gets progressively longer and/or more difficult to do with each character you add, I find.

If you think The Main Characters Do Everything is a problem, don't have them do everything. Have them watch, perhaps with awe or suspicion or disgust or confidence, a character in the background who sets things in motion.

That level of planning doesn't lead to a good story, I've found. Perfectionism isn't something you can really attain in writing, because that is an objective description that flatly doesn't apply to art. Write what you like, but write anyway; think of it as every minute you spend creating a story in your mind or on paper being another minute you haven't spent showing it to someone else. (He said on TV Tropes...)

Of course, if reams of notes are what fuels your productivity, go for it. I'm talking about myself here, mostly.

Some people have limits. But a writer breaks all limits for a good story.

What I recommend is making something similar to these round characters. Grouping characters together can simplify things a lot. Two hundred characters takes a lot of work, if you're going to make them developed and interesting. Work on separating them into sides, such as antagonist, protagonist, or something similar(because not everyone is black and white).

Also, if you have races, you can separate them into these races, and possibly create some interesting traits with these races that connects the characters. You could also make teams, or groups based on friendship/connections, government groups, terrorism groups, cabals, etc. You could even make a list of female and male characters. But separating them is key to being able to handle all of them.

Now, when it comes to them, work on a few basic things for everyone. Some are looking for revenge, redemption, justice, etc. A goal/motivation is important to many characters. A personality is also very important, and finding their primary emotions can help. An impatient character with a kind heart, a character that is nervous and shy, an energetic charming character, etc. And next, quirks. Things such as a favorite insult or compliment, a favorite food, a quirk in their speech, etc. Some may stutter, others may speak in rhyme.

And finally, do what you really want. Its possible there may be some characters you are not very proud of, or characters you find boring. Working on these characters will go a long way, but you need to make the main characters the strongest ones, character-wise. Well, you don't need to, but doing so will make the story much more interesting because of its focus on interesting characters, but make sure everyone is a person. A person has emotion. You create a character, but you write a person. Just have fun with all two hundred characters.

One thing I would recommend is having a clear purpose for your characters. What is his/her/their role in the story? How does that compliment or contrast with the characters you want to give most attention to? It's fine to not reach an emotional arc for the supporting cast but they have to have an arc for themselves to begin with. Otherwise, the large cast would ended up being wasted and incoherent while angered the readers when their favorite character / plotline ended up doesn't do anything.

The grouping thing is a good idea like I have had ideas for I involved setting up groups having them meet split affect the world setting up more characters to be used in the next storyline.

I dont want to be that guy but this should in writing block, dosent it?

Yup, Writer's Block is for sharing stuff you're working on and asking for feedback or asking general questions about writing and using Tropes, World Building is for asking for concrete questions regarding, as the name suggests, world building on (and discussing the resulting answers).

So this is one of many threads have popped up in World Building recently that really should be in Writer's Block.

So is this thread going to be moved, closed or what because I think I have another Wall Text in me about my own stuff and I don't want it to be All for Nothing?

Your best bet is probably to make a request to a mod to move the thread to Writer's Block.

(By the way I was wrong about the other two threads where I recommended a move to Writer's Block, since I misunderstood the intent of the World Building/Writer's Block split, but this topic, namely applying a trope to a story you're writing, rather than to a world you're building, definitely does belong there and you'll probably get better responses there, since the technical writers with no interest in world building but lots of skill at character writing aren't likely to come in here looking for threads relevant to their skill set.)

And if you want to add a post in the mean time, I'm pretty sure that's fine. No reason we can't continue to discuss this while we wait for the thread to be moved.

The moderators are not obligated to make rounds on the forums, much less corners like this that don't need any moderator attention 99% of the time, so halting discussion in the hopes that a mod will show up isn't gonna make anything happen. If you really want the thread to be moved, click the yellow triangle icon on the first post to contact a mod and make a case.