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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/5457
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Among a million other ambitions under the general heading of "Writing," I have this fantasy where I write a major series, several books long with a giant cast.

But I started thinking. In giant series like the recently famous Song of Ice and Fire, Lord of the Rings, Golden Compass, every other giant series ever, there are more than a hundred characters. Maybe even hundred_ **s** _, sometimes. And of course every writer wants to make the next Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka, Dumbledore, Holmes...awesome characters who everyone remembers.

But when you have that many characters, I feel you simply _can't make them all interesting._ If you did, you'd be emphasizing things that may not matter. The audience always wants to see more of an interesting character, and you'd be bringing something to the foreground that had no place there. Many characters, both minor and occasionally major, have to be more flat and generic. 95% of the elves in LotR barely speak at all.

So I suppose my question comes to something like this--\> How would you decide when to give someone personality, and when not to? Has anyone here ever consciously kept a deliberate balance in this category?

Original score: 21