I’ve always had this problem with novels, especially stories with lots of characters. I read The Hunt for the Red October recently and I feel like there about 30 recurring characters and I had real trouble remembering who was who, who had what background, who was young and who was old and so on. It didn’t help that a number of the names were Russian and, being unfamiliar names, my brain wasn’t able to peg them to anything. I have this issue in general with novels, though, especially if I put it down for a few days and return to it later. One author who has been good with handling this so far is Agatha Christie. Reading Murder on the Orient Express, she would introduce a bunch of characters, but when they reappear later, she would make sure to say “and the old doctor sat down” or something similar to help me remember who they are beyond just their name.
If you have this issue, what do you do? I’ve thought of writing down a few notes on the characters on the paper I use as a bookmark, but I don’t want it to keep interrupting my flow.
by ReaverRiddle