Characters and viewpoints

Cast roles, appearances, established details and character development.

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• There are too many characters to keep straight

  The cast as a whole is difficult to retrieve and distinguish; overlap between two specific roles is more focused.

• Some characters may be doing the same job in the story

  Two characters have overlapping narrative functions, rather than the cast simply being large.

• An important character disappears for a long stretch

  One character's stretch of absence needs attention, rather than the overall proportions of the cast.

• Your characters aren't appearing in the proportions you expected

  The distribution of attention across characters is the concern, rather than one person's isolated absence.

• Your points of view are becoming difficult to balance

  The pattern of narrative perspectives is at issue; different information held by those perspectives is a separate layer.

• A character's details don't stay consistent

  Established non-temporal facts need reconciliation; age arithmetic and conflicting interpretations require different checks.

• A character's development goes flat

  One person's responses and choices show too little intended development across time; stability can still be purposeful.