Average Number of Characters in a Novel

You misattributed my quotes to jaksen, so you should edit your post.

NeverDoneIt said:

You can say that about any job. Your job should be your passion. But lots of people go to work every day and aren't passionate about their job and still get the job done and get it done well.

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Difference between being an author and most other jobs
a) you only get royalties twice a year, instead of a weekly paycheck
b) anyone can be an author, because only people who want to be authors are authors. Ergo, nobody who isn't passionate about writing becomes one on purpose

I guarantee you there are authors out there who feel more passionate about the money they make off their writing than they do off their writing. What about someone who writes formulaic schlock like Daniel Steele but who made a fortune doing it? Do you really think she was feeling passion for those books?

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I don't know how Danielle Steele feels about her books, because I'm not her, and neither are you. So I'm not going to draw conclusions about anything to do with her.

Listen, you see yourself as an artist. I see myself as a manufacturer of a product that people want to buy.

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When people buy books, they're not looking to buy a "product", they're looking to buy a story. When I go to Barnes and Noble and pick up a novel to read the synopsis, I'm not thinking, "How efficient is this?"

Why should you be writing for yourself? I already know my story. I made it up. I don't need to write it down since I already know it in my head. Writing it down only helps me to convey it to other people.

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You won't know how much you know of your story until you actually try writing it down. You might think you know the whole thing, but once you actually move from mere images in your head to words on the page/screen, I guarantee you will be surprised. Writing it down doesn't only help you convey the story to other people, it helps you see what kind of story it is in the first place. Where do you think the phrase "It sounded better in my head" came from?

Why and what anyone chooses to write is up to them. There aren't any correct answers to those questions, so long as the author can answer them to their own satisfaction. If one writes for passion and another for money, and a third out of boredom, good for them.

As far as how many characters a novel has, I think any story should have only as many characters as are necessary to tell it.

I would worry that people here would be too focused on the art and not focused on the product, and really, I think they are different.

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No, what people here are focused on is getting published. Unless your product is technically excellent, you're not going to sell your product (unless you self-publish) because you're competing against people with BOTH kick-ass stories AND technically excellent manuscripts.

We don't harp on POV and all that other stuff because it's fun. We do it because it's part of the craft of writing, and mastering that craft is required in order to publish.

... can almost guarantee you that someone, somewhere has calculated the average you're after. Every imaginable thing gets calculated sometime or other. Now where to find such a stat is another matter. Anyone who reads a ton of books could probably give a ballpark estimate. It's not a bad bit of info to know. Not incredibly important, but I could see how you might want to know and how it might be somewhat useful. G'luck in finding out.

I'm pretty much done here, but I'm going to leave with these last comments:

NeverDoneIt said:

Done, thanks for pointing that out.
I think you are naive if you think that everyone who writes fiction for money feels passion about it.

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I don't think any person who didn't really want to sit down and create an entire world of characters and interactions would bother wasting so much time. As another poster said, there are much easier ways to make money. You mentioned nursing; people might hate it, and yes, they are not forced into it, but the fundamental difference is that a nurse, once employed, is guaranteed a stable salary. An author can never be sure that each of his books will guarantee him the same amount of money. Some might be great successes. Some might fail. There is no surety, unlike in nursing.

When I go to buy a pair of earrings I am not thinking how efficient is this; I am thinking how pretty are these. Doesn't make a pair of earrings any less a product.

When I go to buy a quart of ice cream, I am not thinking how efficient is this; I am thinking how good will this taste. Doesn't make a quart of ice cream any less a product.

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But neither the earrings nor the ice cream give you an experience. A work of fiction is something entirely separate from either of those things, which are still physical in nature. Neither of those things engage the mind. Fiction, on the other hand, has everything to do with how it engages the reader- and therefore consumer's- imagination.

You see fictional writing as an art and a passion. I see it as producing a product people want to buy.

Remember, that is what I do all day with non-fiction. And in some of my non-fiction writing, I am telling a story. Other times, being descriptive. Other times, being persuasive. Not using the same techniques as are used in fiction, though. That is what I came here for - to learn the techniques.

I guarantee you there are fiction writers out there who don't feel passion for their work but feel passion for the money they make off of their work.

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Fiction and non-fiction are not the same thing. Their aims are not the same. They are apples and oranges.

Good luck to you.

One to a cast of millions.

On average, however, you'll probably have fewer than 10 main characters, unless you're telling a very complicated story.

Minor/secondary characters? As many as you want.

Okay whoa whoa whoa.

NeverDoneIt said:

First off, nurses can be laid off like any other hospital employee, so no surety there. Second, just because you may never get paid for your work doesn't mean you had to feel passion for the work.

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If you're not getting paid and you don't like it, then why do it at all? I don't follow your logic here. And if you get laid off as a nurse in one place, you can still apply at another hospital. On the other hand, if your book fails in the US market, there is no alternate US market to which you can turn.

Yes they did. I felt the sensation of wearing the earrings and the tastes of eating the ice cream. That was an experience for me.

And when I buy a car, I get the experience of driving it. Doesn't mean a car is not a product.

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I should have been more specific. I meant a mental experience. Unless you have synaesthesia, which I'm guessing you don't, I don't think that wearing the earrings, tasting the ice cream, or driving a car is going to take you to another mental plane.

A work of fiction conveyed in a paperback book is physical. You should go read the copyright laws. You can only copyright something that is in tangible form and if it is in tangible form, it is physical.

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Copyrights are neither here nor there in this discussion. A story is a story whether I'm reading it on a Kindle, on the computer, or in my hands. It engages my mind no matter how I'm consuming it, so the content, rather than the form, is the important part. With earrings, ice cream, and cars, on the other hand, just looking at it won't cut it, I have to hold it in my hand. Mental engagement, physical engagement. Different.

A textbook is non-fiction and yet it engages the mind. An editorial speculating about the future is non-fiction and engages the reader's imagination.

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Books engage the mind, ice cream does not, unless you get a brain freeze from sticking it to the roof of your tongue. When I was saying that fiction and nonfiction are different, I was not saying that one engages the mind and one doesn't, I was saying that you can't approach the writing process in the same way. The whole market is different! I don't even know how you drew the conclusion that I was saying nonfiction doesn't engage your mind. I'm saying that you, as an author, can't expect to apply the same methods you know are successful for creating a work of nonfiction for a work of fiction, because they are two completely separate entities.

Might be time to stop feeding the troll.

I've never counted my characters. I think it's a silly waste of time. If you want to "invest" the time in your story then do it. If you don't, don't. But worrying about such matters doesn't ensure a saleable product.

NeverDoneIt said:

I am considering becoming a fiction author to make money. I have an idea for what I think it is a great story and I want to sell it.

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If you give me a dime for every wannabe-writer who says that, I'd be richer than many fiction writers.

There are better ways to make money. If you think every fiction writer is going to be rich like Stephen King or JK Rowling, then you're more delusional than I thought. No, fiction writers are not like nurses or lawyers. Totally different career paths, business model, and financial aspects. An more apt comparison would be singers or actors -- and if you think every actor is making $$$ then you obviously haven't met any real actors who are waiting tables at TGI Fridays right now.

That said, you write for whatever reasons. Money is a fine reason, just be prepared to be disappointed. But don't assume everyone else is the same.

And talk is cheap. It's easy (and I've heard it so many times) to say "I've got a great story that will really sell." And none of those people never made it. So instead of talking about it, why not write it, sell it, and then when it's out, THEN tell us about it. Otherwise, it's just hyperbole. You're among writers here. There's nothing you know that many of us don't already.

NeverDoneIt said:

You failed to make a single valid point. I have to end this now. Sorry.

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No. Actually I'm going to end it now. I'm locking this pointless argument. I suggest you go back and read the Newbie Introduction. We have one BIG rule here at AW: Respect your fellow writer.