Hi Carly I write action thriller based on my 30 years working fire rescue and arson investigation. I do have a large cast. I have my fire crews and arson investigators. Plus we have family members. It can be a challenge to keep conversations and actions to 3 or 4 people at a time. without overwhelming the reader. I had 14 in the first chapter and was able to cut it to 7 active and still giving the sense there were many others on the scene of a large fire. I also depending on the size of the fire I page out a lot of equipment. The other thing I learned the hard way is to pace between cast and dialogue. I also use radio traffic. Thank you. Some great tips.
@@carlystevensbooks ❤Thanks. We're deep into a second rewrite in the first of three. I also have a Facebook group to help authors write authentic fire rescue and arson in their fiction. I'm also working on some true crime stuff. My fire books and the arsonist are loosely based on Johnathan Orr this countries most prolific arsonist. He is a former Captain from the Glendale California FD arson squad. They estimate he set more than 2000 fires over his 30 year career as a FF.
@@kenshoemaker1882 I'd love to know more about that Facebook group! Actually, I'm looking for my next "What Writers Get Wrong" guest, and fire rescue and arson investigation would be a fascinating topic!
The most important thing I learned for McCarthy is: Everyone who say something have to have some kind of motivation, even if that character says only a single line in the entire novel. It doesn't have to be world changing though, it can be as simple as "I'm hungry". Regardless, first you need to figure out what they want, and then comes their personality, because that's what decide how they communicate their want.
I kind of overdid it with my newest WIP and made a main squad with six major characters, then nine minor characters in roughly 50k words or so. It's supposed to be a longer epic so it's not too damning (I'd never even think of doing that on a standalone), but sometimes I feel like I bit way more than I could chew. Fantasy names are already hard to remember sometimes, and if there's so many of them...
I have 6 characters to focus on all with diverse personality, 1 is supportive but cant talk, another who is tiny and too sympathetic while they are literally trying to be assassinated by their home town, a chaotic person who wants to kill that home town, a strict person who is tired of the chaotic person, another who is a literal child and doesnt understand that they are watching people being slaughtered, and the main character whose just stuck with them and trying to die so they can go back to their dimension
Personally, I like to keep my cast of characters down to the same number in Robinson Crusoe, helps me keep track of them. I wouldn't want to leave out the thoughts and feelings of the lady in the coffee shop. She was a major character, made fabulous lattes.
Hi Carly thanks for asking. Authors Fire/Rescue. We started the group 3-1/2 years ago. The main reason we started the group was to help authors write authentic fire/rescue and arson in their fiction. We have consulted with authors Kathryn Shay, Carol Beers, Joan Raymond and many others. We have retired and active Firefighters who give their expert advice. We also cover wildland firefighting. We answer questions from authors. We cover what we do how we do it and what we don't or can't do during a fire or accident scene. We also cover how an arson investigator processes a scene. We would love to have you join our group.
hi! I met you at Barnes and Noble and I have a question. Could you do a video about how to describe monsters without sounding stupid or anything?? I'm working on a book rn about a group of children who went on a camping trip with their families and were orphaned by gruesome monsters that inhabit that forest. I want the monsters to strike my readers with fear but I also want them to have a clear picture of them. For example one of the monsters that kills the main characters dad is pterodactyl shaped with a raw mushy face that uses its victims faces to cover up the exposed flesh. I want to be able to describe the creatures without taking a ridiculous amount of page time because the scene is fast paced. j
When I read a story or watch a movie, often the characters I care about the most aren't those I'm supposed to care about the most. And why not? If you look into a room full of people in real life, for every single one of them, there is (hopefully) somebody somewhere for whom he or she is one of the most important, lovable people on earth. I don't really like the idea that the author decides for whom the audience should care, respectively not care. It just happens, and it may happen like love at the first sight, even if this character turns out to have a very small role. Nonetheless, some characters are very important to the plot and others may be in one scene and never show up again. You can't tell everyone's story, even though everyone is the protagonist of his or her life. With this in mind, I try to write like everyone could be the main character, and the readers will have to find out by themselves for whom they'll root or care. In the first draft I had about twenty chracters with POV, giving each at least one chapter, but that didn't really work for many of them. So I'm going to reduce POV's drastically. Still, I try to convey the idea that these people could be main characters just as well as those I'll focus on.
I agree that it’s important to treat everyone as if they could be the MC of their own story, but it sounds like you made the right call to reduce the number of POVs just so you could effectively tell the story you needed to tell.
![How to Develop Your Writer's VOICE [writing style tips]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/yL1uD-N12b4/mqdefault.jpg)
Thanks! I plan on writing a novel with a large cast since I'm on my finedeene break, i hope to learn more than I already know with this video :)
Hi Carly I write action thriller based on my 30 years working fire rescue and arson investigation. I do have a large cast. I have my fire crews and arson investigators. Plus we have family members. It can be a challenge to keep conversations and actions to 3 or 4 people at a time. without overwhelming the reader. I had 14 in the first chapter and was able to cut it to 7 active and still giving the sense there were many others on the scene of a large fire. I also depending on the size of the fire I page out a lot of equipment. The other thing I learned the hard way is to pace between cast and dialogue. I also use radio traffic. Thank you. Some great tips.
Sounds like you have some great strategies. Glad you enjoyed the video! 😁
@@carlystevensbooks ❤Thanks. We're deep into a second rewrite in the first of three. I also have a Facebook group to help authors write authentic fire rescue and arson in their fiction. I'm also working on some true crime stuff. My fire books and the arsonist are loosely based on Johnathan Orr this countries most prolific arsonist. He is a former Captain from the Glendale California FD arson squad. They estimate he set more than 2000 fires over his 30 year career as a FF.
@@kenshoemaker1882 I'd love to know more about that Facebook group! Actually, I'm looking for my next "What Writers Get Wrong" guest, and fire rescue and arson investigation would be a fascinating topic!
The most important thing I learned for McCarthy is: Everyone who say something have to have some kind of motivation, even if that character says only a single line in the entire novel. It doesn't have to be world changing though, it can be as simple as "I'm hungry". Regardless, first you need to figure out what they want, and then comes their personality, because that's what decide how they communicate their want.
I kind of overdid it with my newest WIP and made a main squad with six major characters, then nine minor characters in roughly 50k words or so. It's supposed to be a longer epic so it's not too damning (I'd never even think of doing that on a standalone), but sometimes I feel like I bit way more than I could chew. Fantasy names are already hard to remember sometimes, and if there's so many of them...
I have 6 characters to focus on all with diverse personality, 1 is supportive but cant talk, another who is tiny and too sympathetic while they are literally trying to be assassinated by their home town, a chaotic person who wants to kill that home town, a strict person who is tired of the chaotic person, another who is a literal child and doesnt understand that they are watching people being slaughtered, and the main character whose just stuck with them and trying to die so they can go back to their dimension
Personally, I like to keep my cast of characters down to the same number in Robinson Crusoe, helps me keep track of them. I wouldn't want to leave out the thoughts and feelings of the lady in the coffee shop. She was a major character, made fabulous lattes.
Hi Carly thanks for asking. Authors Fire/Rescue. We started the group 3-1/2 years ago. The main reason we started the group was to help authors write authentic fire/rescue and arson in their fiction. We have consulted with authors Kathryn Shay, Carol Beers, Joan Raymond and many others. We have retired and active Firefighters who give their expert advice. We also cover wildland firefighting. We answer questions from authors. We cover what we do how we do it and what we don't or can't do during a fire or accident scene. We also cover how an arson investigator processes a scene. We would love to have you join our group.
Thanks! I found the group on Facebook and sent you a message.
Very helpful 👏 👏
hi! I met you at Barnes and Noble and I have a question. Could you do a video about how to describe monsters without sounding stupid or anything?? I'm working on a book rn about a group of children who went on a camping trip with their families and were orphaned by gruesome monsters that inhabit that forest. I want the monsters to strike my readers with fear but I also want them to have a clear picture of them. For example one of the monsters that kills the main characters dad is pterodactyl shaped with a raw mushy face that uses its victims faces to cover up the exposed flesh. I want to be able to describe the creatures without taking a ridiculous amount of page time because the scene is fast paced. j
Hey! Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll definitely put that on the list of possible upcoming topics!
When I read a story or watch a movie, often the characters I care about the most aren't those I'm supposed to care about the most. And why not? If you look into a room full of people in real life, for every single one of them, there is (hopefully) somebody somewhere for whom he or she is one of the most important, lovable people on earth.
I don't really like the idea that the author decides for whom the audience should care, respectively not care. It just happens, and it may happen like love at the first sight, even if this character turns out to have a very small role. Nonetheless, some characters are very important to the plot and others may be in one scene and never show up again. You can't tell everyone's story, even though everyone is the protagonist of his or her life.
With this in mind, I try to write like everyone could be the main character, and the readers will have to find out by themselves for whom they'll root or care. In the first draft I had about twenty chracters with POV, giving each at least one chapter, but that didn't really work for many of them. So I'm going to reduce POV's drastically.
Still, I try to convey the idea that these people could be main characters just as well as those I'll focus on.
I agree that it’s important to treat everyone as if they could be the MC of their own story, but it sounds like you made the right call to reduce the number of POVs just so you could effectively tell the story you needed to tell.
About similar-looking but not similar-sounding names: So I can’t put Charlie and Caoimhe in the same scene? 😁
I don’t think those names look so similar that readers would be confused. Carry on with Charlie and Caoimhe, I say! 😊
@@carlystevensbooks Thanks for your feedback! 😉
I had just sat down with a large bowl of steamed broccoli when you mentioned it, now isn't that funny