How many characters?

[Ambriel]

I have been inundating you guys with questions about the book I am currently working on, and here is another one.

My book currently has a cast of 9 mostly major characters including the main character himself. My question is, how many of them should have magical powers. Their current occupations are phycisists, linguist/philosopher, medic, researcher, magical theorist, and master martial artist. The phycisists discuss what would potentially be possible within the bounds of physical law, and help the main character figure out how to do it, the linguist and philosopher helps the main character with spells and incantations, and also helps him maintain his self control in hard situations. The medic is fairly self explanatory, helps deal with any injuries the team suffers, the researcher helps with other non-physics related issues like animal anatomy and other general "how tos". The magical theorist thinks of out of the box ways to use magic the resident "what iffer", and finally the martial artist is again self explanatory training the main character in various techniques. Who if any of them besides the main character should have magic also, in your wise opinions?

 

[Ambriel]

Thank you @thejudge for putting it in the right place.

 

[msstice]

What makes you think there is a wrong answer to this question?

 

[Ambriel]

What makes you think there is a wrong answer to this question?

Fair point, just concerned that too many may muddle things or make it too cliche. If all 9 of them are super powerful it might diminish the rarity of magic.

 

[msstice]

What state is your book? Is it an idea, and outline, a first draft, a second one? I think this question is only answerable after the first draft where you have some idea of how everything fits together. However, your intuition is steering you towards fewer people with super powers, so perhaps you will find it more to your liking to have a story with fewer. I think in all cases you should go with your instinct: that's the only thing that drives the story you want to tell. Whatever other people will tell you comes from the story they want to tell given your setting.

 

[Harpo]

In the Discworld series of Sir Terry Pratchett (GNU STP) there are several books where the main characters are wizards, sometimes multiple wizards. There are also quite a few books with witches as the main characters, but that’s a different type of magic.
These books are varied and interesting, sold many copies, and many of us read them over and over.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld Reading-Order Flowchart

Greetings, Over the years, I have encountered many people who have encouraged me to read Terry Pratchett's Discworld stories. About a year ago, I gave in and read The Colour of Magic. I enjoyed the novel, and wanted to continue with the next story, but I didn't know which one it was. So I did...

www.sffchronicles.com

The number of magic users in your book will affect how big a part magic plays in your story.

 

[Harpo]

If all 9 of them are super powerful it might diminish the rarity of magic.

They might be the only ones in your universe. Nine in an entire universe is quite rare.

How many Jedi Masters are in the Star Wars universe? They seem quite rare but they encounter each other a lot.
That’s stories, that is.

 

[Wayne Mack]

My concern isn't with the number of characters that have magic powers, but the number of characters described as "mostly main." As a reader, I doubt that I could keep track of nine primary characters. Perhaps demote all but one to three to less prominent roles.

 

[reebee]

I agree with previous commenters that multiple magic-users encountering or working with each other, even (or especially) in settings where magic is rare, is not at all a writing sin. But if you're concerned, a mitigating factor might be including some narrative reason why they all end up at the same place: a secret magic society/agency/school, or a feeling of being magically drawn to each other (or the same event, or the same object).

Is the type of magic these characters have (or might have) the same? I would be interested to see how healing magic differs from martial arts magic--or if the martial artist has, say, healing magic that isn't directly related to their job. All this to say, another way to determine how many of these characters have magic would be to consider what varieties of magic you might want to display, and which roles would be the most interesting with or without magic (e.g. if the magical theorist doesn't have magic does that affect their job positively or negatively?).

 

[Laura R Hepworth]

No real 'right' or 'wrong' answer. Really comes down to what will work best for the story itself and what sort of worldbuilding you're doing. Is magic supposed to be rare in your world? Maybe it isn't, but certain types are or there is a degree in strength for each magic type. So, it might not be rare at all for someone to have at least a measure of magic, but to have it that strongly is. In which case, you may want to build out what sort of magic system you have: the types of magic, their 'normal' limitations, etc. Does your story also really hinge on all of those characters having some sort of magic? If not, then see which ones you think you can do without, but, if so, then leave them and don't worry about it if someone might think it's 'too many' and work on why it makes sense for all of them to be there. Like others have mentioned, maybe magic is a super rare thing in your world, but circumstances somehow force them all together.

Besides, you can always go back and change it if you don't like it so write your story how you want to and go from there.

 

[Oligonicella]

How big is the story? One book or series? How frequently do the "main" characters actually occur? Do they belong to an specialized organization or are they like the loose confederation who worked with Dare Devil? How does the world around them react to magic (or does it even know)?

Perhaps start them out as meres and only inject them with magic if necessary.

 

[Swank]

My question is, how many of them should have magical powers.

None.

 

[Ambriel]

None.

It is a fantasy novel that revolves around magic so at least one of the characters has to have magic. Are you being sarcastic?

 

[Swank]

It is a fantasy novel that revolves around magic so at least one of the characters has to have magic. Are you being sarcastic?

I was being cheeky, but you should ask yourself what would happen if none of them have magic.

Or none had it permanently.

 

[msstice]

I was being cheeky, but you should ask yourself what would happen if none of them have magic.

If everyone is special, no one is. In a universe where everyone has magic (e.g. pocket computers that talk to each other with invisible waves and carry the sum total of human knowledge in them) magic is not considered magic.

 

[Ambriel]

I was being cheeky, but you should ask yourself what would happen if none of them have magic.

Or none had it permanently.

If none of them had magic the main character would continue wishing magic was real and continue wishing for revenge on something that is inpalpable. They would all continue living their mundane lives.

 

[Ambriel]

If everyone is special, no one is. In a universe where everyone has magic (e.g. pocket computers that talk to each other with invisible waves and carry the sum total of human knowledge in them) magic is not considered magic.

In this case I am talking about actual supernatural magic not sufficiently advanced technology.

 

[Swank]

If none of them had magic the main character would continue wishing magic was real and continue wishing for revenge on something that is inpalpable. They would all continue living their mundane lives.

Sounds like you know your story better than we do.

 

[Ambriel]

Sounds like you know your story better than we do.

Isn't that the idea? As the author of the story I should know it better than the potential audience. Your questions are extremely helpful with fleshing out the finer points of the story though. As I said in a different thread, I work better with human feedback than trying to forge ahead on my own.

 

[ColGray]

I agree with the others who have said, it's about what serves the story.

Based on your other post, it sounds like you have an MC (your Ferris Buehler) and then other characters. The MC can have some reader-insertion qualities to them, but other characters should have specific purposes that serve the story in ways you can immediately enumerate.

Other questions i might think about are:

1. What does each other (non-MC) character bring to the story? What is their purpose for existing in the narrative? How does their POV expand, deepen or subvert the major themes of the book?
   1. If you can't point to that, do you need that character? What is their purpose?
   2. If you can point to that, what limitation and escalation most support that purpose?
      1. ex: In Harry Potter, Snape being a teacher sets him up as an antagonist with personal stakes. Having him be smart and ultra-precise, like Hermione, makes him play against her and offer both a cautionary tale and possible outcome for her character arc. His escalation is having power over Harry and his limitation is his personal stakes and loyalty to Dumbledore.
      2. If you know how your magic system works, do they have limited access to every type of fiction-wish-fulfillment magic? Limited access? Access to only those types they've read about? What if they're dyslexic and really struggle with visual reading but then find audiobooks?

TLDR, define their purpose --> subvert, limit and escalate that purpose with character traits and abilities to create tension/conflict --> write

I mean, c'mon-- soooo easy! /s