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Q&A How much can a reader remember?

I've been writing some fantasy. Now, inevitably because its a big piece of fantasy, its all very involved with the world, culture, story and general bits. Personally, I'm really enjoying writing it...

2 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Daniel Cann‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:31:02Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/24262
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Daniel Cann‭ · 2019-12-08T05:31:02Z (over 4 years ago)
I've been writing some fantasy. Now, inevitably because its a big piece of fantasy, its all very involved with the world, culture, story and general bits. Personally, I'm really enjoying writing it.

I have noticed that in a few fantasy novels I have read, I just haven't been able to remember who everyone/what everything was. For example, Thomas Covenant, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, Malice represent this perfectly. There are so many materials and things, strange concepts that sometimes I'm completely unable to keep track of them. For example, in The Hobbit I didn't know which dwarf was talking half of the time...

Anyway, in my novel there are many different materials and characters, and the world is really big. How much of this can I expect the reader to remember without having to flick to the glossary or map every two minutes?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-08-22T14:31:35Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 33