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The complaint you are perceiving isn't really about too many names or too many characters. It is about the story's complexity. If there is only a single character, but she is juggling dozens of s...
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#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T11:05:09Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42855 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
wallyk
·
2019-12-08T11:05:09Z (about 5 years ago)
The complaint you are perceiving isn't _really_ about too many names or too many characters. It is about the story's complexity. If there is only a single character, but she is juggling dozens of situations, complaints would manifest about "too much going on" or "hard to follow." Especially if the situations have nothing to do with each other. Tom Clancy's novel _Red October_ ambitiously describes many submarines doing all kinds of maneuvering and tactical operations. There are at least six things to keep track of throughout the climax. I tried following it twice and gave up. In comparison, the film is _much_ easier to follow—and hence a far superior story than the book—because it is mostly the essence of the story. > _It says something about a nobleman when he knows every guard and stablehand by name_ ... Yes, that is great character attribute. But you needn't bludgeon the (undeserving) reader to express that. _The nobleman returned from afar to his village. On the way home, he greeted every single person he passed by name. Even the stablehands and the dairymaids._
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2019-03-02T16:09:09Z (almost 6 years ago)
Original score: 2