- Thread starter
- #21
Krizzirk
Minstrel
These are very sound perspectives, it didnt occur to me that way, I really should rock away my procrastinative habit, and star poring over novelsI haven't had to articulate this before, so talking out of my butt a little, but three seems to be a "magic" number in writing. Something happening once or twice can be coincidence. Three times, not so much. One or two tries at something, not enough to build tension. But three seems to be just right, because four may feel like too much and may make it so the reader feels like things are being dragged out.
Three also makes it so you never really have a stalemate when voting. Person one votes A. Person two votes B. Now it's up to Person three to make the deciding vote, or they may vote for C. Either way, it creates disagreement/tension among all three. Person three's choice will affect their relationship with Person one and/or Person two. Three characters makes the interactions and relationships between characters more complex, where one person can always be pulled in three different directions, and be constantly making choices between three things, instead of two if there's only one other person involved. You can agree with one of the other two characters or you can have your own opinion. This can help maintain conflict in the story, because there can always be a situation where there's one dissenting person.
A lot of the things that apply to the number 3 can apply to other odd numbers as well, in terms of voting, etc. Also, numerology may come into this. A lot of people say 7 is a lucky number.
my2cents