How to not overload the information in a series

[Agentt]

So, I and @Napelynn once had an idea, and built it together to, well, not completion, but its there, like, it exists.

So, the idea was that an entire class gets summoned to isekai, and everyone is hero. Like, there are 23 heroes, and 23 demon lords, and every hero has to kill his respective demon lord, and the POV will switch every chapter.


So, well, this is a gag work, so not all heroes have same character development, like there is this amoeba hero(he is my favourite) who will defeat a amoeba demon lord, and I would like to focus on him, if possible. There is this hero who just gets eaten by a bear, we haven't figured out how this will result in the demon lord dying, but, well, we will, we will figure something out.

So, anyways, the main point, for inspiration, I looked up many multiple protagonists LNs, and on the I am a spider, so what?, I saw this review, which said that the author needlessly put so many characters to make himself look smart, but all it does it to confuse the readers.

So, that did made me realise that confusion is a real thing, people can't appreciate this beautiful creation, if they are blinded by its dazzling 1000iq stuff.

So, well, yeah, a bunch of random stuff will happen here, a whole lot of randomness, and so many characters, with each a different personality and I need readers to like, not give up reading due to the absurdly huge amount of information they would have to remember.

 

[Ddraig]

Check Durarara / Baccano for multiple pov too.

Multiple povs are fun, 23 pairs from start though? idk - most peeps will have trouble remembering names of your chars in the first place.

Alternatively you could go for "1 arc" per pair. Basically every "arc" starts at roughly the same point in time and ends whenever you want. Finish hero #1 first then write about hero #2 and so on. Some scenes will repeat in "arcs" with multiple povs but that is kinda the fun of multiple povs in the first place y'know?

 

[Agentt]

Check Durarara / Baccano for multiple pov too.

Multiple povs are fun, 23 pairs from start though? idk - most peeps will have trouble remembering names of your chars in the first place.

Alternatively you could go for "1 arc" per pair. Basically every "arc" starts at roughly the same point in time and ends whenever you want. Finish hero #1 first then write about hero #2 and so on. Some scenes will repeat in "arcs" with multiple povs but that is kinda the fun of multiple povs in the first place y'know?

Yeah, but I want to preserve the gagness of this, and use the fact that audiences can't remember names to write something like,
"That dude who likes peanut butter whose name I just forgot and am too lazy to go back and check"

 

[greyblob]

Each character needs at least one defining feature. I can barely remember names of MCs let alone side characters. What I do remember, though, is what they do/a special quirk they have. You're trying to create 46 uniquely different characters. Good luck.

 

[SailusGebel]

Yeah, but I want to preserve the gagness of this, and use the fact that audiences can't remember names to write something like,
"That dude who likes peanut butter whose name I just forgot and am too lazy to go back and check"

You can still do it tho? For example, make a character A say this about character B, whose last appearance was 20-30 chapters ago.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Dude, create a glossary and have the decency to put the link in every chapter you post. That way it at least make those who want to keep track have a better time.

 

[Agentt]

Each character needs at least one defining feature. I can barely remember names of MCs let alone side characters. What I do remember, though, is what they do/a special quirk they have. You're trying to create 46 uniquely different characters. Good luck.

You can still do it tho? For example, make a character A say this about character B, whose last appearance was 20-30 chapters ago.

If I did manage to do both, will you actually read that abomination?

Dude, create a glossary and have the decency to put the link in every chapter you post. That way it at least make those who want to keep track have a better time.

Ah, that is a great idea, didn't thought of that,

 

[SailusGebel]

If I did manage to do both, will you actually read that abomination?

Probably not, because my sense of humor is somewhat unique. And if I understood everything correctly, you want to write a comedy.

 

[greyblob]

If I did manage to do both, will you actually read that abomination?

Ah, that is a great idea, didn't thought of that,

I don't like stories with multiple POVs, but I'd give it a shot. I've read a couple of gag stories in genres I don't enjoy that turned out to be pretty good.

 

[Daitengu]

I'm also not a multiple pov fan. Pretty sure it was Naruto Shippuden filler that trained me to hate it.

Then again, I also have around 20ish series I follow from here, rrl, and fanfiction. Perhaps I just got the human cap of 50ish memorable characters/people at a time because of it.

 

[Dragrath]

Hmm so you want 23 heroes which are all classmates each being summoned to fight a demon lord? It would probably be hardest to keep track of each and whatever demon lord/threat they all have to face especially if they are all in the same world/setting but you could probably do some clever tricks to reduce the tedium for both yourself and others.

Like for the demon lords for them you might be either able to double dip or "cheat", if you want to avoid making them all separate unique characters completely you could possibly reduce the effective number take a "Legion" approach i.e. the demon lord is some amalgamation hivemind with multiple bodies or something though that would work best with some sort of monstrous threat approach. If mean if one hero is a unicellular amoeba they can easily coexist in the same world as others since they wouldn't be able to readily sense each other and even a tiny puddle would be a vast world. Imagine if the demon lord of the amoeba was just a generic slime? That could give you some comedy based on the prospective of scale as a bonus.

You might even be able to make the treat disproportionate summoner the real antagonist for at least one of them as is the cast seems so big that it will be very hard to pull off likely resulting in most if not all of the characters being relatively 1 dimensional.

In general as others have said this sounds like you would need some navigation document of sorts. Probably not something I would be interested in unless pulled off well as you are fighting up against the human brains capacity limits.

 

[AdLeto]

So, I and @Napelynn once had an idea, and built it together to, well, not completion, but its there, like, it exists.

So, the idea was that an entire class gets summoned to isekai, and everyone is hero. Like, there are 23 heroes, and 23 demon lords, and every hero has to kill his respective demon lord, and the POV will switch every chapter.


So, well, this is a gag work, so not all heroes have same character development, like there is this amoeba hero(he is my favourite) who will defeat a amoeba demon lord, and I would like to focus on him, if possible. There is this hero who just gets eaten by a bear, we haven't figured out how this will result in the demon lord dying, but, well, we will, we will figure something out.

So, anyways, the main point, for inspiration, I looked up many multiple protagonists LNs, and on the I am a spider, so what?, I saw this review, which said that the author needlessly put so many characters to make himself look smart, but all it does it to confuse the readers.

So, that did made me realise that confusion is a real thing, people can't appreciate this beautiful creation, if they are blinded by its dazzling 1000iq stuff.

So, well, yeah, a bunch of random stuff will happen here, a whole lot of randomness, and so many characters, with each a different personality and I need readers to like, not give up reading due to the absurdly huge amount of information they would have to remember.

Just make the heroes work together and gank the demon lords one by one

 

[Agentt]

Just make the heroes work together and gank the demon lords one by one

Would be a nicer if I wrote the heroes as an evil organisation then
Also, @BlackKnightX so, this is how a panster works, I guess?

 

[Kaieta]

Easy, throw in a magical girl

 

[BlackKnightX]

So, I and @Napelynn once had an idea, and built it together to, well, not completion, but its there, like, it exists.

So, the idea was that an entire class gets summoned to isekai, and everyone is hero. Like, there are 23 heroes, and 23 demon lords, and every hero has to kill his respective demon lord, and the POV will switch every chapter.


So, well, this is a gag work, so not all heroes have same character development, like there is this amoeba hero(he is my favourite) who will defeat a amoeba demon lord, and I would like to focus on him, if possible. There is this hero who just gets eaten by a bear, we haven't figured out how this will result in the demon lord dying, but, well, we will, we will figure something out.

So, anyways, the main point, for inspiration, I looked up many multiple protagonists LNs, and on the I am a spider, so what?, I saw this review, which said that the author needlessly put so many characters to make himself look smart, but all it does it to confuse the readers.

So, that did made me realise that confusion is a real thing, people can't appreciate this beautiful creation, if they are blinded by its dazzling 1000iq stuff.

So, well, yeah, a bunch of random stuff will happen here, a whole lot of randomness, and so many characters, with each a different personality and I need readers to like, not give up reading due to the absurdly huge amount of information they would have to remember.

Multiple POVs are good and fun, but 23 POVs all at once are just too much. Not that you can’t do it, but if you wanna write something epic, you need to escalate the tension until the climax, right?

But then if you keep switching the POV for 23 characters, when you get back to the first POV again, it wouldn’t make me feel the sense of progression anymore. Everything will looks like a big jumble mess of things randomly happening.

Though, if you wanna write it, go ahead. But my advice is this; You need to gradually tell the story from from a few characters at a time, then slowly moving on.

Have you ever watch, Fate/Zero? The show follows multiple characters and POVs, but it‘s never overwhelmed the audience because everything is connected and cohesive.

With that said, you can write that much POVs no problems, but you better make it digestible and gradually serve it. Keep the sense of causality and progression, always.

Just shuffle between two or three characters at a time until they reach their climax, and then move on.

 

[Vnator]

In such a scenario, I'd probably start by focusing on just one pair, while making it known that there are others around. When one has gone far enough that the characters and settings are established, switch off to another (maybe they meet? or something that makes them relevant), and carry on from them. Establish their character and setting as distinct from the previous one, and future switches can be more abrupt.

Point is, make sure the reader gets to know one at a time so they're not overwhelmed all at once, and each introduction is after one is already established so the reader can easily tell the difference when switching around once again.

 

[Zero300]

Make it a collab with 23 authors

 

[Akivien]

Nono agent i may not have a good memory, but if it's good then i won't mind you jumping randomky from one pov to another but that b a huge test on your writing skills.

Multiple POVs are good and fun, but 23 POVs all at once are just too much. Not that you can’t do it, but if you wanna write something epic, you need to escalate the tension until the climax, right?

But then if you keep switching the POV for 23 characters, when you get back to the first POV again, it wouldn’t make me feel the sense of progression anymore. Everything will looks like a big jumble mess of things randomly happening.

Though, if you wanna write it, go ahead. But my advice is this; You need to gradually tell the story from from a few characters at a time, then slowly moving on.

Have you ever watch, Fate/Zero? The show follows multiple characters and POVs, but it‘s never overwhelmed the audience because everything is connected and cohesive.

With that said, you can write that much POVs no problems, but you better make it digestible and gradually serve it. Keep the sense of causality and progression, always.

Just shuffle between two or three characters at a time until they reach their climax, and then move on.

Just slowly build their climaxs nd then just time it well.
Also in time of character dev you can do da awaitef climaxu

 

[irei1as]

It beats the "not remembering that hero" joke but, similar to a glossary, adding a 23 lines ranking at the end of each chapter. Maybe gods are playing magic league? For each hero then also point where and what is doing.
But maybe that goes a little litrpg style and, yeah, it's a bit against your point.

 

[BlackKnightX]

Just slowly build their climaxs nd then just time it well.
Also in time of character dev you can do da awaitef climaxu

It’s like an episode in a TV show where it shuffles between two or three characters until they reach their respective climax at the end of the episode. Then the next episode you can move on to another set of two or three characters and then do the same. But when it come to writing the series, think of the episode like an arc instead.