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Would A Book Work With Only 2--4 Characters?

I mean, it worked for Shadow of The Colossus and ICO, but...those are video games. It seems that it's easier to have a minimalist video game or movie, but I might be wrong. I guess it depends on the skill of the creator.
 

Futhark

Inkling
I'm sure you could make it work, if you had the right setting. I watched Passengers the other night and it only had 4 characters, including the android. It was predictable, but it was well done and I found it entertaining.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
Sure it can work. Some stories will lend themselves to this, others won't. And it also depends on what you mean by four characters. Are you saying that only four characters will ever be encountered in the world? There will be no nameless background characters at all?
 
Yep, just three/four named characters [since the realms they visit are basically voids or 'dead' worlds].

The characters [so far] are as follows:

Na-Ah: A powerful genderless cosmic wizard with a huge claw for a left hand, a sewn shut mouth, pale, crystal-ish eyes, and thin, colourless hair. [Na-Ah draws on natural light [sunlight, moonlight, starlight, fire] and transforms their body to a certain type of crystal or gemstone to use magic.] They move from realm to realm, always trying to escape from something, and their backstory isn't revealed until later on in the story.

Ia: A young Nekomatta [ghost cat] girl who travels with Na-Ah. Possibly their childhood friend and/or bonding partner. She is slowly [and painfully] turning to crystal. For some mysterious reason, Ia loses her memories of Na-Ah every night, and cannot remember them in the morning.

Alula: A beautiful winged child who follows Na-Ah and Ia from realm to realm, but never speaks or attempts to communicate.

Ii: A mystical being trapped in a collapsing realm.
 
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SumnerH

Scribe
I mean, it worked for Shadow of The Colossus and ICO, but...those are video games. It seems that it's easier to have a minimalist video game or movie, but I might be wrong. I guess it depends on the skill of the creator.

Man vs. Nature is a classic way of handling this in literature. The Martian was a book before it was a movie. There are a bunch of children's survival/nature books that fit, such as Island of the Blue Dolphins (mostly), the Blue Lagoon, Hatchet, and Lost On A Mountain In Maine.

The nature struggle is common because explaining the reason that there aren't other people around is tricky to do. Post-apocalyptic books have a built in rationale (I Am Legend being a classic example, and The Road fitting the description for long stretches as well).

That said, there are also antagonistic classics that are largely 2-character (e.g. The Most Dangerous Game), and some that pair a duo against a larger force that's not really character driven (The African Queen).

If you're willing to open it up to having just 2-4 main characters but allowing the occasional cashier or desk clerk or similar then there are a lot of locked-room mysteries that might qualify. Interpreting the restriction even more loosely, a Notes From Underground/Life of Pi kind of approach could work as well.

In genre, Patrick Rothfuss' The Slow Regard of Silent Things is a recent example that definitely merits a read and essentially has just one character.
 
^I'm used to books/manga with loads and loads of characters [Harry Potter, The Lord of The Rings, Claymore, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle...]
 

Mythopoet

Auror
Sure. Absolutely. It of course depends highly on the story itself. But you can write a story with only one character. You can do practically anything with a story, especially in the fantasy genre.

You just have to be aware that your story might not appeal to as many people. Personally, I think that is the main advantage of stories with large casts. Most readers become invested in stories for the characters. The more characters you have the more likely readers will find someone to become invested in. Think of the major success of manga/anime like Bleach, Naruto or Fairy Tail. The fandoms for these series are full of people who don't necessarily like the MC very much, but find their favorite characters among the supporting cast. (For instance, my favorite character is Bleach is Renji Abarai, not Ichigo or Rukia.)

So as long as you're willing to accept that risk, you can write with any small number of characters.
 

Gurkhal

Auror
As said by many posters above, there's no reason to think that you need many characters to get a good story.

Now I like stories with lots and lots of characters that interact with each other but there's no reason to think that having fewer won't work. What you might want to think about is that their relation and interaction may need a bit more work as having two characters refuse to interact with each other will be a major thing, where such a thing wouldn't be all that hard in a setting with more characters. Thus they'll need to get along to a degree but I would imagine that you don't want them to get along so well that there's no conflict or drama between them while still keeping these relations as plausible.
 
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