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Idra Fallow

@idrafallow.bsky.social

300 followers 91 following 850 posts

Garden hermit. Occasional persona of Pinko Scare. she/her

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Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 4h

Your correct factual statements about Musk

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5h

One of Sanderson's characters has the same name as one of my characters. I'm not changing it, damn it.

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5h

Anyway I thought I would peek at what the big names in High Fantasy are doing just to make sure I'm not going overboard here. I feel better now lol

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5h

There's a couple other bands mentioned too but they're like, offhand mentions and you don't need to remember them. And in the context the protag is like...how tf am I gonna remember all these names? So you, dear reader, are given permission *by the narrator* to not remember them.

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5h

I have 53 named characters, three main cultural groups (one of which are called Forest Folk so it's pretty obvious what they are), seven villages, and six nomadic bands. I've limited how many are mentioned for the first time within a scene or chapter, and I made a naming convention to keep it simple

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5h

And then there's seven named cultures/peoples/places, and another made-up fantasy words for objects/species/concepts/etc. Stormlight and Shardblades are mentioned frequently without explaining what they are.

Which is fine. I'm following this story perfectly well.

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5h

After reading the first few pages of The Way of Kings, I am no longer taking criticism about the number of named characters in my novel. Sanderson has like fourteen character names in the first ten pages or so, some of which are the same characters with slightly different names.

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5d

Which is hard because the protagonist lives in a village of about 300 people. And everyone else also lives in small groups like that. It's rare for any of them to meet someone and not know their name, so I have to be creative to make the scenes feel busy enough without every person's name coming up.

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5d

Then again, the people who gave me this feedback said they're not really big fantasy readers. I think I had 100-odd named characters in my first draft, and now I have 53. I tried to avoid the thing you see in, for example, ASOIAF, where people who are essentially just set extras have names.

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5d

It was more a philosophical question tbh lol. But also I've received feedback that there are too many characters. I've winnowed it down as much as I can, I think, unless I start killing some darlings. Which I'd rather not.

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5d

Someone with an MFA help me, my novel is dying

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5d

Does it count as an arc if the character doesn't actually change, but the perception the protagonist has of them does? Like, if she starts out thinking someone is on her side and friendly, and then it turns out they were plotting against her all along, is that an arc for them, or just the protag?

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5d

There are even some characters who have zero lines of dialog that the protagonist understands. Before I wrote the conlang, all of them were like "He grumbled something under his breath." Sometimes she gets translations. Sometimes not. One hardly talks at all. But all of them have some type of arc.

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5d

Does dying count as an arc? I mean, it's a big change, yeah?

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5d

I guess not every secondary needs an arc?

And there are some tertiary characters who definitely have arcs. Partly because they become more important in book 2.

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5d

I'm thinking about this because I'm trying to decide if I have too many characters still. I've been cutting out some of the really minor ones who don't really do anything, and giving whatever small role they play to other characters. So I'm sorting "secondary" and "tertiary"

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5d

It occurs to me that some of the characters I personally think of as secondary are maybe actually tertiary.

Like I think of protag's gf as secondary. She's a major motivator for protag, she is integral to the plot (albeit without protag's knowledge). But does she have an arc? Does she change?

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5d

I had fun doing it, though.

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5d

Ain't that always the way. All the academic work I ever did was unpaid, or in the case of field schools and research for my undergraduate thesis, I paid for the privilege of doing it.

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5d

This sounds both painful and delightful.

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5d

Gonna have to sock drawer it, I'm afraid.

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5d

Regular conversation:

Me: *pours bowl of cereal*
Husband: We're all out of oatmilk.
Me: *opens cabinet where I have put an entire case of oatmilk.
Husband: Oh, right

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5d

Mine just has ADHD I think. There are cabinets that do not exist to him.

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5d

Same but for oreos lol.

Find a cabinet you know he is unlikely to look inside.

Idra Fallow @idrafallow.bsky.social · 5d

It's not really the fault of the people in the writing groups. The last one I was in was actually really helpful and my book is much better for it. Like a completely different book, really.

But I'm terrible at group dynamics. Maybe I'd be better at them now that I'm medicated. Who knows.