The Number of Characters in Oranges

I posted earlier about my novelette, titled Oranges. Today is no exception, and I wanted to talk to you about

the number of characters one needs in a story.

For starters, let me be the first to admit that the original manuscript of Oranges had way too many characters to begin with.

For a story that was just on 10,000 words one requires no more than one main character, not a dozen. The more you have the problematic it gets, especially if you want to include all of them. In the first A Puppet on a String novella, I actually have one main character and a primary opposing character. But the difference is that the word count is much higher.

As I did an edit run and slight rewrite, I decided to put a focus on the senior non-commissioned officer and build up his relationship with the officer in command of the main character's unit. Jax did indicate that the reporter, seen in the original version, was also interesting. But . . . well . . . I am unsure.