Introducing a character in your novel is a lot like introducing a friend at a party, you shouldn’t tell everybody everything, but rather, just the essential.
From there, you allow the character to engage with his or her surrounding, thus letting everyone else experience the character in action as opposed to you telling the audience everything up front.
When examining how you’ve introduced your character, ask yourself, is this detail relevant? Do the character’s actions show their personality? If so, avoid exposition. Trust that your readers can paint the picture of your character themselves, simply give them the colors they should use and set them off. This is especially important at the beginning of a story, as you don’t want to overload your readers.
How to introduce a character in a novel:
- Don’t over describe your characters
- Use actions to show traits
- Exhibit the character’s flaws
In this video, I’ll give some character introduction examples and gives some writing advice to improve your story.
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Elliot Chan 