You thought you were shed of me. Ha!
Today, I'm approaching a subject where I have been guilty of committing this sin. Character crowds.
What? Character crowds. As I mentioned, I'm guilty of creating such a phenomena. I was encouraged to expand a story I'd written about a reverse Frog/Princess story with Dragons and Shapeshifters. The story started simply with the main female shapeshifter discovering her condition and a real dragon near Mt. St. Helen's in Washington. I made the mistake of allowing the characters to take over and, quickly, wound up with clans of dragons and shifters from all corners of the world.
This book did become the base for my dragon series but, initially, that was not my intention. Having so many characters vying for the reader's attention will make them tired, cranky and liable to put the book down and walk away. I've been fortunate my readers liked the story enough to slug through the characters and ask for more.
If you must have myriad characters, give them names that aren't similar. Provide solid descriptions of the characters and give each a particular trait shared by no other. Let their personalities shine so your reader knows exactly who is speaking when they read the lines. If there have been numerous pages since the character appeared, give a short introduction, i.e., Bob, Betty's old boyfriend who recently returned from Asia...
You can always create an index page listing the names and a few identifying traits.
I think it best to create your characters so well, there is no need for an index. After all, look what J.K. Rowling accomplished with her cast of thousands. Everyone knows who Snape is.
Mistress of the Red Ink Pens
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