Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A How many characters can I introduce in the first chapter before the reader gets overwhelmed?

Assuming that all of the characters are unique, interesting, and stand out from the rest of the cast, is there a limit to how many characters I can introduce in the first chapter before my reader s...

1 answer  ·  posted 8y ago by Summer‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question characters
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:21:25Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/23456
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Summer‭ · 2019-12-08T05:21:25Z (over 4 years ago)
Assuming that all of the characters are unique, interesting, and stand out from the rest of the cast, is there a limit to how many characters I can introduce in the first chapter before my reader starts struggling to remember who's who?

If not a limit, is there a certain number (or maybe a percentage relative to the total amount of characters in my cast) that is considered "good" or "reasonable" to introduce in the first chapter?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-06-20T04:03:24Z (almost 8 years ago)
Original score: 8