Please help. How do I introduce my characters for fiction-narrative

Question

How do I introduce my characters for the fictional narrative? I already have written the story, but I don't know how to introduce my characters! :( Please help.

Answer 1

Hallo!

 

Characters are the heart of any story, because they are the folks we want to find out about, follow through experiences, and see how they handle conflict and how they resolve problems.

 

Introducing a character in a story is kind of like what happens when you meet a person for the first time. You don't usually pause and stop to think "okay, the person's skin color is. . . hair style is . . .  eye color is . . . has these clothes on. . . " and all the other little things that we automatically assess in about 2 seconds. So, writing all that out feels passive, and slow. That is why you will usually get the "showing not telling" recommendations. But, what does this MEAN?

 

Think again to meeting a person for the first time. Why did you meet him/her? Were you introduced, walk into the person, have an accident, stop to pet his dog, realize she was your new boss? What was the person doing/being, or hose did you instantly feel,  that immediately stood out?

 

Keeping these questions in mind, along with setting an active voice / matter-of-fact pace will help you introduce a character. Also, keep in mind, that the introduction usually will not have an immediate sense of appearance, since most folks just don't categorize that in detail when they are introduced. It usually will instead focus on actions, a conversation, a conflict, and your introduction is most telling in HOW the character behaves, responds, articulates, etc. The appearance bits come later, and if you really tie stuff together like action and appearance, you can bring the person alive.

 

For instance, if someone described ME, they would often start as seeing me as someone who always looks like I just rolled out of bed - even in a pressed business suit, I still look like i climbed out of bed, got dressed in the dark, and got rumpled by a windstorm. That goes a long way toward introducing me and you don't need to know just what I look like. . . yet.

 

Make sense?

Answer 2

Kaelyn, introduce your characters by showing instead of telling your readers about the "person." For example, Mary is a character that you've already introduced, but now you want to introduce her father who she just met and now lives with.

 

This is telling: Mary's father was rude, imposing and a bit over-the-top. He didn't know what he had gotten himself into taking in his teenage daughter as a result of her mother's death.

 

This is showing: Mary's stomach eased into knots when she saw his car approaching her school. Her mind was a roller coaster trying to navigate all the possible ways to tell her dad she'd gotten suspended after only her second day at her new school. "This should be fun," she mumbled.

 

Although Mary had just met her father the day of her mother's funeral, she could already detect something vile in him that made her cringe.

 

When he slammed the brakes, the car stopped precisely so that the door was right in front of her. Mary grabbed the handle. The lion awakened.

 

"Hurry up! What the hell is taking you so long to get in! Why are you moving like a snail," he roared. Before she could close the door, her father sped off. "What the hell have I gotten myself into taking in a teenage girl," he whispered just loud enough for Mary to hear. Louder, to Mary, he bellowed. "Your mother always did want the last word. I guess she got it and the joke's on me!" His hearty laugh was chilling.

 

This example says the same thing about her father as the "Telling" example.