Tips for introducing characters

How an author introduces characters is crucial for drawing a reader into the book. First impressions matter because characters carry readers into the story. We experience the plot through the eyes of the characters.

In Writing Life Stories, author Bill Roorbrach suggests, “Every person you mention should get a quick, sharp, devastatingly exact sketch. Help your reader see each person, no matter how minor. If a ticket taker gives directions, be sure to show his toupee.”

Basic character descriptions often begin with physical appearances, but bland police line-up descriptions of height, weight, eye and hair color will leave a reader with a shallow connection to the character. As a reader, I want more than a physical image.

In one paragraph, using clever word choices, Laurie Halsey Anderson describes three men before the Revolutionary War in her book Chains (upper middle grade and teen):

“Next to him sat a man with suspicious gray eyes and a liver-colored coat with a double row of gold buttons fastened over a large pudding-belly. The third man wore something on his head that looked more like a dead possum than a wig, but his coat was crisp and new and the buckles on his shoes gleamed. The fourth was Master Lockton, looking like a cat who had just swallowed the last bit of a juicy mouse.”

These one-sentence descriptions are limited to the physical traits and clothing of two men, and a third man’s expression, but the reader’s imagination is stirred enough to see the scene and quickly know the characters are not admirable.

Note the first man’s eyes are not just gray, they are suspicious gray. I picture his eyes as darting around the room. His liver-colored coat and large pudding-belly sound disgusting to me. I sense he is not a person of integrity. The second man’s clothes hint of wealth, but who can be drawn to someone wearing something that looks like a dead possum? The last man’s expression “like a cat who swallowed a juicy mouse” pushes me to see the trio as a pack of predators. My first impression of them goes beyond looks. I “know” these men.

Besides introducing characters through their physical appearance and clothes, the setting of a character can add clues to their personality. Markus Zusak does this in The Book Thief (young adult).

“Frau Diller was a sharp-edged woman with fat glasses and a nefarious glare. She developed this evil look to discourage the very idea of stealing from her shop, which she occupied with a soldierlike posture, refrigerated voice, and even breath that smelled like “heil Hitler.” The shop itself was white and cold, and completely bloodless.”

Throughout Zuzka’s book, this sharp-edged woman never softens. In this first introduction, we learn she owns a shop. Her soldierlike posture and refrigerated voice reveal a cold personality that is stiff and unyielding. Diller’s “heil Hitler” breath set me on edge. But it’s her shop setting, described as white and cold, and completely bloodless, that shows me Diller has no compassion.

Authors continue to deepen and develop characters throughout a novel, but their first introductions create important impressions. Readers can be snagged or bored. A character’s first description is a broad-brush stroke, but it needs enough color to keep a reader interested in the character and what will happen to them.

I remember characters more than the details of plots. A character’s courage, tenacity, hope, or—you name it—lingers with me far longer than the storyline.

Some of my favorite characters: Scarlett O’Hare (Gone with the Wind), Kunta Kinte (Roots), Ebenezer Scrooge (The Christmas Carol), Winnie (Winnie-the-Pooh), Harry (Harry Potter), Scout (To Kill a Mocking Bird) are from books I read years ago. I have clear images of these characters while the plot details of their stories are hazy.

As you write, make good introductions.

Which characters do you remember more vividly than the plot? Leave a comment!

Happy writing & Reading

Gretchen

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More Than Grit

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