A note to authors

[andrewducker]

If you start your book by introducing five characters at once, who refer to each other by a mix of first names, surnames and nicknames (and occasionally by some identifying feature) then I will finish the opening chapter with no idea who anyone is, or what they are doing.

I have enough problems with names in real life - I need to be introduced to characters one or two at a time, with each one labelled and identified so that I have some kind of internal handle on them, before the next ones are introduced.  More than that and I will bounce right off of your book.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

f you start your book by introducing five characters at once, who refer to each other by a mix of first names, surnames and nicknames (and occasionally by some identifying feature) then I will finish the opening chapter with no idea who anyone is, or what they are doing.

But Andy, Tolstoy did it... :-)

[call-waiting.livejournal.com]

Hah, you beat me to it...

[andrewducker]

Well, that's him off the list :->

I remember seeing a BBC pull-out guide to all of the various names in War and Peace (my parents had it from the 1972 version) and being somewhat boggled...

[cybik.livejournal.com]

Have you tried watching The Wire? By series three there are plenty of characters to get confused by.

[andrewducker]

TV, comics and movies can throw as many characters at me as they like - it's names that confuse the hell out of me, if I can see a character then I can remember them.

[cybik.livejournal.com]

Except a lot of The Wire, especially the first season, has them referring to names while they listen to their voices on the wiretap.

[andrewducker]

Provided they differentiate between them and introduce them along with characteristics that allow me to tell them apart then it's fine.

[cybik.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they do, mostly. It's still a little overwhelming in places!

I highly recommend it, though. It's huge and sprawling, but the characters are all really interesting and rounded. You end up having massive sympathy for even the most violent people (my favourite character is someone who has no qualms about killing, none whatsoever. But he's fricking awesome).

[andrewducker]

The Wire is definitely on my list. I've only heard good things about it.

[call-waiting.livejournal.com]

The Wire is pretty twisty, but it's not all that bad for following the characters. It did, however, confuse the hell out of me through the first couple of episodes trying to work out the Barksdales' family structure because McNulty erroneously refers to DiAngelo as Avon's cousin. Confused the hell out of me, that did.