#WritersCoffeeClub May 14: For characters, plots, ideas, settings, &c: how much is too much?
That depends on how much it takes before the audience is disoriented. There are multiple ways to avoid this:<li>Grouping: You can treat small groups like a single character in some ways, giving them shared focus and bouncing them off each other.</li><li>Signature shorthand: Why do Power Rangers all have unique colors? Because colors are easy to remember. Color language can inform their traits. It can also just plain keep a large cast straight. Or a big world straight with diverse locales.</li><li>Tier structure:<ul><li>Hero/Big Bad/Base/Evil Lair – central focus</li><li>Party/Enemy generals/recurring locations – central focus orbit</li><li>Allies/Recurring rivals/important environments – primary support that you want people to still care about/sympathize with</li><li>interesting NPCs/interesting islands – little surprises and hidden treasures to keep things feeling alive</li><li>all your ghosts/filler – essential negative space and downtime</li></ul></li>
