Forum: Bug Report and Feature Requests

Thanks, Lazeez. I'm not sure how widely it'll be used, but it will certainly simplify my life.

I have to ask, what is the value of a cast list to a reader?

While writing I keep a cast list because I often leave a story aside for weeks between bouts of working on it. However, if the cast goes to 25 or above I'll often beef it out a bit and include to assist the readers in knowing who is who in the story. With some longer stories running up to 50 or more people it can be helpful when someone appears at the start, vanishes, then reapperas many chapters later.

With some longer stories running up to 50 or more people it can be helpful when someone appears at the start, vanishes, then reapperas many chapters later.

There are also certain guidelines I've learned to apply to cast lists. You only list characters who appear in multiple, non-sequential chapters, though you list each of the primary and secondary characters. But all those tertiary characters, readers tend to forget who they are almost as soon as they appear.

But even then, cast lists are more important with sequels than for stand-alone stories, and even then, you never list everyone from the original story, only those who reappear in the sequels.

I can also see situations where a person might never appear "on scene" in a sequel after playing a significant role in at least one earlier story would still deserve an entry in the public cast list as a result of their influence on characters involved in significant portions of the sequel. For instance, one character might have problems as a result of a bully even though that bully was shipped off to Alaska and does not appear in over several books.

If they're mentioned in the new book, then you list them. However, if they're NOT named (by the characters in a particular book), then there's really no reason to list them (thus they 'drop out' of your cast list).

And just an aside, but I also use the 'cast list' for my own benefit. Since the first chapter in a story tends to get a LOT of false reads (from browsers 'read-ahead' buffer), if you post the cast list as your FIRST chapter, then when you finish the entire story, you request the Admins delete it, and then (a couple days later), you repost the completed version so it goes at the end like it belongs, but erases all those bogus page views.

But that doesn't address whether it's beneficial to include a cast list or not.

Novice authors have a tendency to excessively proliferate the number of characters in a story in a dubious attempt to retain the readers' interest. As an example, there are plenty of examples on SOL where, once inducted into a harem, the author loses any interest in furthering a character's development apart from mentioning the mind-blowing orgasms they get every ten chapters or so. Instead the author moves on to the next character to be inducted into the harem.

For those readers who care, the cast list serves as a reminder of the role each character plays.

AJ

Because I can't see one immediately, I have to ask, what is the value of a cast list to a reader?

Authors, like me, keep an internal cast list (more extensive than the published one) to keep track of their own characters, but the posted cast list is to provide a reference for readers who forget who a character might be when they haven't appears for several weeks.

It's basically only for reminding a reader who was who. It's not intended to be read, just referenced like an appendix.

Still, most sources suggest you only include when once the list of characters (or chapters) grows too big. Anything under 30 characters is generally considered safe for not including one.

I find those pointless, especially that I only read a story once it's finished. I'm reading the damn thing sequentially. I don't need reminders who is in the story now.

I believe that authors who keep a cast list at the start of every chapter, needs them as a reminders for themselves and not for the readers. They're useless for readers and should be removed.

Plot – tells you the point in the story's chapters or plot line in which the character was introduced. May mention what part the character plays in the plot at that point, and if so, their involvement is not updated as the plot evolves.

I had an instance where a character disappeared (for plot reasons) for a long time, then reappeared in a very surprising way. Because so much story time and so many words had passed, almost nobody remembered who the character was. That led to a blog post and an updated Wiki to explain who the character was.

That's fine. I can accept that it's too difficult, and is unlikely to be used by most authors. I was just hoping that, maybe it wouldn't be as complex as I assumed it would likely be.

It would benefit me, as I often post blogs for specific chapters, since I know well in advance what happens with each specific chapter, and I can't comment on it until the readers reach that point in the story, but I don't write stories like other writers do anyway.

Thanks for at least considering it. I'll continue managing as I have been, no worse for having asked.