Writing process and cloak

The first piece of advice was to limit my characters. I had upwards of thirty.

Secondly, she wrote the alphabet and had me write down each of my character's names. Only one name per letter. I found that I had multiple characters with the same first letter. She told me that was confusing to the reader. So that is where I started. Combining three and four characters into one person  and then was able to whittle down the amount of people in my book.

Then she had me make a chart and based off of the story wrote what the two main characters' main action was in that chapter. The chart was five spaces across and four down. At the fifth square on each row there had to be a main turning point. Something had to change in the story which the character reacted to and turned the trajectory of the plot in a different direction.

I asked my daughter to make this cloak and then realized that no one enjoys seeing worn-out clothing.