On Hurtful Things

[sakon76]

My writing teacher just told me that I have too many characters and need to cut out about half of them.

BullSHIT.

A couple of my classmates at least had the decency to point out the number of characters I have is a standard for the genre I'm writing in. Which is Epic Fantasy. So, yes, I goddamn well do need them all. Every single character in the book is there for a reason.

Try reading LotR with only half the Fellowship. Or Game of Thrones, but take out House Stark. To cut down on character count, because, you know, we have to treat the readers like idiots since they can't keep track of more than half a dozen characters. Not that I'm anywhere near as good a writer as Tolkein or Martin. Yet.

This is the closest I've ever come to quitting this class. But as it's 95% of my feedback, I can't afford to.

Me and my copy of The Hobbit are going to bed, because otherwise crying may be involved.

Comments

[dragondancer515.livejournal.com]

. . . yeah, that /is/ bullshit. Characters are cut when they're not really necessary for the story, when they're just fluff or self-inserts or anything that doesn't really /serve/ . . . not because there are just too many. >,> I'll admit, I've read books where I've lost track of who's who due to the number of characters, but I've also read books where there are a SHITTON of characters and I've followed them all just fine.

*HUGGLES!!!*

[tainry.livejournal.com]

Ugh. What a ridiculous, thoughtless thing to say. BIG ENSEMBLE CASTS ARE AWESOME! DAMMIT!

[shefytbast.livejournal.com]

Oh, ugh. Teachers without genre-specific knowledge, bleah. (I can't even imagine how you'd cut out half your characters without rewriting the thing into an entirely different book.)

I know I owe you tons of feedback; I'm hoping to get to it sometime soon, after our power comes back.

[ghilledhu.livejournal.com]

What a stupid, reductive thing to say. A story has as many characters as it needs, and readers who are drawn into the story understand that. So sorry you had to hear that, and I'm glad to hear some of the students stood up for you.