Characters make stories. They are why we read. They are how we escape into someone else’s life, experience trials foreign to our own. They provide inspiration to keep going during struggles. Getting to know them helps us learn and feel. They change us.
Characters are why we care. They are why we keep turning pages and stay glued to the screen.
How you introduce your characters determines whether or not that happens, whether your audience sticks with you.
Good introductions are how you connect, allowing your audience to engage, empathize and become emotionally invested in your characters. If they don’t care, they are less likely to stick around, even if your plot is stellar.
It’s a simple objective really, and as difficult a task as possible. You have to make your readers feel. There is no one way to do this. No one formula to follow. But there are some techniques or guidelines that are helpful. In this blog, we will look at that basic advice. The next blog will cover introducing your main character and the final two blogs will explore various ways to introduce your characters, using examples from fiction and film.
Basic Advice:
Introduce Early
Introduce your main character as soon as possible. Without your main character on the scene, your reader is left alone, without anyone to connect with or care about. You must introduce your character before you can hook your reader. That does not mean your main character ever has to take the stage. Look at Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. The main character never appears to us except in narration, and yet the main character is never absent. Our entire experience of that book is tied to that one character and what he/she/they sees, feels, observes, does. Introduced on page one in the prologue, the main character dominates the book.
Make First Impressions Count
How you bring your character to life is essential to how readers feel about him or her. If you offer up a passive introduction, your reader is less likely to care. Action is better for hooking the reader or viewer. But whatever style introduction you choose, make it memorable. Make the first impression show who your main character is and how your reader should feel about what is to happen.
Foreshadow Villains
You might not want to introduce your antagonist or villain right away, but you should hint at their existence. This heightens tension and pays off when you do finally reveal who they are.
Filter Introductions
Everyone on the page should be filtered through your main character, unless you are using multiple points of view. This is an opportunity to reveal not only your new characters, but more about your main character. The tone of voice used by the narrator speaks volumes. Does your main character reveal biases or focus on specific traits in others? How does that reflect who she is? All of the information contained in the introduction paints a picture of what your main character is seeing, but also her mindset.
One at a Time
Don’t introduce a group of characters at one time. Since your reader doesn’t know anybody yet, they won’t be able to keep a group of people straight in their head. If they don’t feel like they know who the characters are, they won’t care. Allowing each character to have a moment, lets readers connect with each and every one of them. It makes the people in your story far more memorable than a group introduction would be. This heightens empathy in the reader and ties them more closely to the characters and story.
Follow Your Story
Your story will determine how your characters come on the scene. If they appear in the middle of a gun fight or are seen from afar depends on the story and context. Consider the best way to show who your main character is through their form of introduction.
Avoid Dialogue Introductions
If the first thing a reader knows about a person is a line of dialogue, it won’t mean much. You’ve provided no context or background for that line. The reader has no way to interpret tone or personality. There are exceptions, but in most cases you would be better off establishing who the character is before dialogue begins. Even a quick description or introduction will help your reader know how to hear your character’s voice and view them within in the context of the story so far.
Character introductions are all about presenting the people who populate your story. How well you do those introductions determines how your readers feel about your characters and the events that are about to happen. Consider how you frame your protagonist, villain, the sidekicks. Do you set up the introduction or jump right in? Do you use setting, emotion, narration, description, action to assist the introduction? Do you use shock or filter the introduction through someone else?
Whatever you choose, your introduction should establish who your character is and a hint at the situation they face, their fatal flaw, or some other key element of the story. It should provide a foundation for your reader to connect and care with your characters.
The early moments of your story matter and character introduction is key to hooking your reader. Our upcoming blogs will show various ways to introduce your character and why it matters.
For a good example of a character introduction breakdown, consider watching this comparison of how Aladdin is introduced in the animated Disney classic versus the live action version. Using the same script (mostly) and character, these introductions are vastly different in the ways that count. Let me know what you think after you watch.