Would It Be Considered Uncanny To Have More Than 3 Main Characters?

[mSerenitym]

Alright, we've all seen the typical "3-man squad" in shows, wheatear it be Percy Jackson, Harry Potter or the love triangle dynamic of Twilight. Well, I'm working on a novel at the moment and... 3 just doesn't cut it for me, too cliche. I'm looking more at something like 5, y'know - 3 guys, 2 gals. No love triangles, or multiple pairings stuff, these are just my main characters.

(Personally I also believe a "friendship group" of 3 people is a little odd-ish, because not everyone has just two people they hang out 24/7. Most people hang with a little more than that I recon).

Comments, anybody?

 

[Frog]

yeah, suppose so. sounds alright, i suppose. i think you should make each character distinctly different. one character could love fancy highbrow sorts of affairs, where another character might cherish very basic simple things in life. One character might be always encouraging everyone else while another character might be harpin' on everyone but occasionally he reveals his soft side. You know, since there are more characters, make sure they're different than one another. Which might be a challenge. I suppose it gets more of a challenge to make them unique when you have five or more characters.

i hope i am makeing some sort of sense. hope that helps to answer your question

 

[JF96]

Not at all. Some of the classics have 10 or more main characters. The only danger is in having them so alike that the reader can't differentiate between them.