How many is too many many characters?
The number of characters to include in a story is, of course, up to the author. However, there are some hurdles to consider: 1. POV or Point of view. Successful books are usually written from one predominant Point of View. That is , mostly from behind the eyes, or from the perspective of one character, or narrator. The more main characters in a story, the more complex this effort becomes. If you write the story in first person, each character's actions have to be reported depending on what the central character is presented with. Usually this means all you characters will need to walk through the story in a group, under the sight of the central character, or that all of their actions have to be reported to the main character to be described, or all the actions the other characters take have to be reported (written about) in a historical fashion, pertaining to what the character has at one point seen, or have been told of. In Third POV, while the story is told by the narrator, who can skip about, or even take the perspective of an omniscient observer, a wealth of detail still needs to be provided to detail each character added, to bring them to life in print, over and above the effort to describe the main plotted action. 2. A book with twelve characters, means detailing twelve backgrounds, twelve personalities, twelve sets of vocal quirks, attitudes and interests, all of which take word count to do. Usually this means a very long book, or one in which many of your characters remain cardboard cutouts. I have written at least one novel with so large a cast, and it is , believe me, a trial. Be certain to plot out, or outline any such story first, with that in mind. Also, in the process of doing that, you may find that you need far fewer characters than you think.
How many characters is too many?
As an avid reader and writer I think 4-6 is a great amount If you have 1-3 they would have to be extremely well-developed 4-6 is a great amount because its enough that the reader doesn't get bored following behind one or two people but isn't overwhelmed by too many main characters. After 6 it just becomes too hard for most readers to follow each of their stories without mixing some parts of them together.
How many characters is too many?
I think that definitely there could be too many major characters if the resulting story becomes confusing to the reader as a result. However, I think, too, that the number of major characters might be dependent upon the point of view from which you are telling the story; if a single person is the source of all of the action and introspection, then you would provide her/him with a circle of friends who would be less developed, the amount of development depending upon their importance to the central character and the plot of the story. (I've written two novels and have used the device which I just described: one character through which the story unfolds and all of the action is observed and described. My heroine has a lover/partner, and the two have several close friends and numerous relatives and other associates whose roles evolve in direct proportion to their importance to the story. Actually, I preceded the body of the story with a character list.) If you want to tell your own story from more than one point of view (I am currently reading a book in which the story is told from multiple points of view, and there is no confusion as a result; of course, the author is a professional, having written several best-selling novels.), I think that you just need to be careful to make certain that what you're writing makes sense and will be comprehensible to whoever reads it; I think that the preceding is more crucial than the number of characters. If you can write a cohesive story, then you can have as many characters as are required to produce the plot of your imagining. Good luck!
How many characters are too many?
In stories, subplots are almost always related to how many characters you have. The shorter the story, the fewer the subplots, and therefore the fewer the characters. Characters are designed to play of the strengths and weaknesses of the main character(s). For a novel-length story, most stories have 6-10 characters. For a short story, you will still need and want multiple characters, but obviously not as many because you won't have enough space to develop them sufficiently. I think less than five, but no fewer than three would be optimal. My opinion is just a guide, not a rule. Story Tutorials http://www.storyentertainment.com/ow
The question here doesn’t quite make sense - there aren’t any characters in 1 bit.Computers store all information in bits - bits are used to represent other kinds of information. A bit isn’t made up of characters - characters are represented by bits (as is everything on a computer - images, audio, everything).If you were meaning to ask how many bits it takes to store a single character, in that case it depends on what character encoding your using. In ASCII it’s 8 bits per character, in UTF-8 it can be anything between 8 and 32 bits. There’s loads more ways of encoding characters than just those though, those are just the most common.
Wow, I haven't thought about EBCDIC since my time with an IBM 370 Mainframe in the late 80's.Wikipedia covers the basics (EBCDIC) and as it was an 8 bit coding system, EBCDIC could potentially store 256 different characters. ASCII was, at the time, a 7 bit coding system and therefore could only store 128 different characters.One oddity I remember is that numbers could be stored as 2x 4 bit characters inside one byte, and therefore could be read from a core dump with great ease. However, as the 370 hardware was able to automatically cope with this format, there was no downside on efficiency using this for your calculations and may have been more efficient when printing. Maybe no surprise that the machines were mainly used for business (i.e. money) type computations rather than scientific work.
You should have as many characters as are needed to tell the story you want to tell (and what your budget will allow).The film All Is Lost (2013), a survival drama about a man lost at sea, has only one character.Sleuth (1972), about a battle of wits between a mystery writer and his wife’s lover, has two characters.It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), an epic comedy film about the madcap pursuit of stolen cash by a diverse and colorful group of strangers, featured over 60 well-known comedians and comic actors.Spartacus (1960), about a slave leading a revolt in ancient Rome, had a proverbial “cast of thousands.”
In a book how many characters is too many?
Alright, look. There's something called 'useless characters.' Basically, they're not meaningful, don't drive the plot, and are just a waste of space. They don't do anything to a certain character to change their point of view on something, and just... They don't do anything, they're useless, they just tag along with the protagonist and are a burden. Both for the protagonist, and you, the writer. What I'm trying to say is - you can have as many characters as you want, but take heed. Don't include too many main characters - because your you'll make your reader throw your book down in utter frustration. You can have the guy that sells a hot dog at a hot dog stand, but you won't go into depth or detail about him - he's just an extra. As for supporting characters, have them relate to the main characters or even minor characters - don't just have them there for the sake of having them there. Main characters, and even minor characters that drive plots - be very wary of how many there are. They all need to contribute something to one plot or another. Just make sure you make every main character interesting and complex, and every minor character interesting to read about. Don't fill up space with characters just for the sake of filling the said space. Just be careful, and best of luck. The way to avoid this - create characters as you need them. Make sure they drive the plot, make sure they have use. I can't stress it enough really. At any rate, good luck!
How many POV characters are too much?
look at A Song of Ice and Fire, it's a brilliant example. There is said to be over thirty POV characters, and I understand it perfectly. You can't have too many, in my opinion. Each character is in their own world, with their own characters and way of thinking. I would say use as many is needed to fulfil the requirements of your plot. If a character isn't needed or doesn't help push the plot and story forward, kill them off. You have another five more after all! Numbers don't matter with characters, because a character is only supposed to develop the plot and push it til the journey's end, and if even one character isn't doing that they aren't needed. So what you can do is create a side-line, smaller plot for them alone to keep them going (like author of ASOIAF) or tighten the noose and give them a rally gruesome end. Plus, their death could anger other POV characters and bring them right out of their comfort zone, initiating new plots and events that lead up to one ultimate end. To answer your question, you can't have too many. But if the character doesn't help the plot, they are useless. And useless characters must be revived by either creating a new plot for them, or create a plot for another POV character by killing the useless one. That's my advice.