Discussion How do you remember?

So I started reading a new story and it has a lot of people and I can’t remember their names. So I am just wondering how do you all remember the people.

 

This isn't an issue I've ever had but my best friend changes their names in his head to stuff like Bob and Jerry to make it more relateable.

Posted here since he's a lurker.

 

I don't, most of the time I just kinda guess who they are, especially when they all have the same surname

 

just remember the importance ones no use remembering some nameless mob

 

If they're interesting, you'll remember them.

If you do intend to remember them. You can try memory techniques like he method of loci.
If you don't want to make that much of an effort, make a glossary or character list and review them.

Most don't bother really.

 

You dont. Just keep readin and you will get use to it. Most of the time i even forget the MCs names( coz i read a lot of books)

 

I don't. I'm pretty bad at remembering names (in RL and novel). So I only familiarize myself to some of it, then hopefully, as the story progress, I'll be able to remember them.

 

I don't remember names. I remember their characters or back story

 

I just keep reading on until at some point I know them enough to remember their name or associate which name to a character once they pop up.

 

I put 0 efforts in remembering names...

The way i see it, its the authors job to make me remember. If I don't remember it, s/he must not be that important to the storyline. If it turns out s/he is important, i would be fuming coz that means the author fails in his storytelling....

 

names doesn't matter at all.
of the hundreds of novels I read and tens of characters in each, I'd be super human to know it all.
what matters is I don't mix up characters from other novels.
I only need to have a vague image of a character and it's significance in the story.
the more I time I spend with the character, the more it will retain to memory.

 

you can associate the name with a characteristic of him/her. the more things you associate the name with, like images of how he would look like, how he speak, his personality, the more you remember the name. it is easier to recall memories which has a lot of connection with other things.

well if the author is doing a bad job of making a character, then you still wont remember him though.

also names in foreign language usually harder to remember as you are not familiar with it

 

I don't remember '-'

Most of the times even Mc's name is not important '-'

 

I don't have to. The author always reintroduces the characters. For instance, every time Grand Elder Uvuvwevwevwe Onyetenyevwe Ugwemubwem Ossas is used it will always come up as Grand Elder Uvuvwevwevwe Onyetenyevwe Ugwemubwem Ossas. Maybe, if the author is feeling lazy, the peanut gallery will even say, It's Grand Elder Uvuvwevwevwe Onyetenyevwe Ugwemubwem Ossas from the Laputa Sect! He's so young yet powerful! He might even become a patriarch! None of us are worth a thing to the Laputa Sect! If only ___ could get accepted! *cue MC's good fortune music*

 

You just don't remember them.
In fact, character introduction is a common bane of most authors out there.
Even introducing Main Characters appears to be something of a struggle to many, not to mention side characters or even marginal ones.
The most common mistake is introducing many easily-forgettable ones, due to the lack of anything interesting or particularly unique about them, in rapid succession, only to forget their very existences for chapters or even volumes on end.
There is this common misconception that everything needs to be named, and everything needs to be introduced.
While it's not wrong per se, doing so forcefully would only bring confusion and even make the act of trying to remember them all simply a bother.

 

I don’t bother remembering. If it’s someone that appears a lot then you just know who they are. If it’s someone that appears after a while then I rely on translator notes saying when they last appeared. Or using the context from what they say about the person to remember them from previous events~

 

I never remember any name beside the MC, to be honest.

 

I was in a small school with less then 50 people in my graduation class. I could not remember even half of their names.

 

Most stories only have ~10 important characters, it only gets hard when they start using alternate names.

There's some reincarnation/isekai stories where people take over other's bodies and the author always refers to MC as his original world name while all the characters address him with the name of the person he inhabited.

And then there's the video game stories where authors use both in-game and real world names, I've had some problems with those.