Introducing new characters...

[Comicality]

 

Just curious...

 

If you have a story that's already going strong, but you decide to add a new element into the mix, how do you guy go about introducing new characters into your already established, stories? I know how I do it personally, but I'd love to have some more takes on the subject! Is that something that everybody does, and if so, how do you approach it?

[Brayon]

Situational in my opinion. I'm currently introducing a new character in one of my stories, that was mentioned twice in the first chapter. They really weren't supposed to be more than a mention in the background, and now they are a secondary main character. So, with him, he walked up and kiss the main story lead, and then he was in the chapter.

 

In another, I had them rescued by the main character, and they became significant support character.

 

I really think in a Long-running, serial posted story, that introducing new characters is giving the story a shot of new blood to work with. It perks it up and allows for a new direction. You can easily slip a character in, or make it to where, it is someone the characters knew about, but until now, they were off stage. I like dramatic entrances personally.

[Carlos Hazday]

Rarely the same way twice. And always in as realistic a way as possible.

 

I recently introduced a new character---to a DeMIlle sized cast---and in the latest chapter, somebody mentioned they thought they were good additions and would fit in well with the established group. The MC is a freshman in college and one character he helped move into the dorms while the other one he met at a GLBT group function. Helping somebody out and participating in such a group are activities fitting his personality.

 

Introductions by friends and/or relatives are always an easy way to bring someone in. The previous character added to the aforementioned group was a guy playing rugby with the main character's boyfriend so it was an easy jump to the MC meeting him and establishing a relationship. Classmates, teammates, and anyone with a shared interest can be folded in without it seeming awkward.

 

The one thing I've avoided so far is the long lost/unknown relative. I'm not saying I'll never use the method, but it strikes me as too daytime soap opera where someone's surprised by a child/sibling conceived years before which nobody knew about. Okay, I may have used a variant of it at one point but not to introduce the character. We already knew him when we heard his father didn't know about his existence for the first two years of the kid's life.

 

[Myr]

Magic.

Actually, I've not really gotten there yet.  My longest running story is a FanFiction, so the characters I slip in are pre-existing. lol

 

 

[MrM]

It is contextual.

 

Depending on what the main protagonists are doing may determine the introduction of a new character. Usually, they are 'Character Actors' that serve to enhance the experience of the existing characters or to further the plot. I usually introduce them either at the very beginning of a chapter or at the end to tie into the next chapter. They appear as would any stranger in a real life situation. They meet at a club, or at school, or on a train in a very natural situation. Sometimes they just 'happen'. The character was introduced off-stage at some point and so the characters are familiar with them and working with them already.

 

Sometimes the 'extras' take on a life of their own and stop being 'extras' and become 'regulars' or even end up with whole stories of their own.

Edited December 21, 2017 by MrM

[LJCC]

I normally add clues and layer it in the beggining chapters if I am to add another prominent mix in the cast. That way, there's an underlying premise to how a new character should exist. But it really depends on the writer's approach.

 

I just tend to like subtle hints that makes readers return to a page or two. But it gets boring at some point, so I create an "In your face" moment. It's easier. But harder to solidify the new character's foundation.

[Graeme]

It has to feel natural. The new character has to have a reason for appearing at that point in the story. You can get away with a random introduction occasionally, but if that's done too often it doesn't feel right.

 

 

Examples I've used include:

• One character has become a minor celebrity. That immediately attracts new people, some good and some bad.
• Someone came out of the closet. That means that other characters in the closet and other homophobic characters will be able to make an appearance in a natural way (assuming the first first person coming out made a big splash -- this is a simple variant of the 'minor celebrity' example above).
• A character was referenced as previously working at place X. He contacts someone at place X and brings them into the story.
• A character travels somewhere and meets someone new. The trick with this one is making sure the travel is realistic. Ideally, the meeting with the new character isn't random, but is part of the travel. In my case, the travel was to meet with an existing character who had moved to the new location, and the new character was his roommate. Doing it this way is less forced than a random encounter where you have to justify why the new character remains in the story.
• Friends of friends who appear for a story legitimate purpose. In my case, one character was known to be active in a LGBT group, so when a kid was thrown out of home, someone in that group asked for that character's help.
• Convert a previously mentioned minor character into a significant character. That shop assistant mentioned in chapter 1 could be reintroduced with more detail and a reason to become involved with the overall plot.

To me, one of the challenges in introducing new characters is to explain why they weren't involved earlier. For that reason, I won't introduce someone like the school bully as a new character partway through the school year (assuming the story has been covering school time) because it doesn't make sense that the bully would suddenly be mentioned/appear for the first time then. If they are a well-known school bully, they should be mentioned before that point (as someone to avoid, at least, or with narrations showing examples of their work).

[VampireMystic]

I've been playing with how to do this in something I've got coming. 

it's a variation on travel. Instead of having the established characters travel, put them in a point of...crap! Brain freeze. Lost the noun I wanted. (And I left it right here yesterday...)

Anyway:

• Two characters walking through some place that draws travellers (Chicago Navy pier), the place may be familiar, but the composition of people there changes. Provide a detail that draws attention naturally, watch the fun. (Can't say more...yet!)
• Basing adventurer type protagonists in a busy trading point near (or as) a necessary service. (Local slightly rough inn. Blacksmith) New people literally walk in and say hello.)
• Local carnival, country fair, town anniversary. 

Basically, you can naturally draw people to your cast with things. 

 

Happenstance could work. "Excuse me, you dropped your (noun). Is that a "C" on your hand, by chance?" (I'm just not going to the party...:P)

Ok, I'm going to drop a smoke bomb and run. Pretend you don't see me, k?

[LJCC]

As a writer who's been stuck on chapter 8 at 50k words for nearly two months now... I had to rewrite my prologue and first chapter. I guess introducing new characters sometimes require some sacrifices within the storyline.

 

I've always imagined stories to be a math equation.

 

It's figuring out how to get to point A,B,C while providing the formula and solution to get to point Z. So if I'm stuck at point D...in order to get to the most important part, the ending, then restructuring minor details in the story is but a minimal price if it provides clarity to the entire story.

[Graeme]

8 hours ago, VampireMystic said:

I've been playing with how to do this in something I've got coming. 

it's a variation on travel. Instead of having the established characters travel, put them in a point of...crap! Brain freeze. Lost the noun I wanted. (And I left it right here yesterday...)

Anyway:

• Two characters walking through some place that draws travellers (Chicago Navy pier), the place may be familiar, but the composition of people there changes. Provide a detail that draws attention naturally, watch the fun. (Can't say more...yet!)
• Basing adventurer type protagonists in a busy trading point near (or as) a necessary service. (Local slightly rough inn. Blacksmith) New people literally walk in and say hello.)
• Local carnival, country fair, town anniversary. 

Basically, you can naturally draw people to your cast with things. 

 

Happenstance could work. "Excuse me, you dropped your (noun). Is that a "C" on your hand, by chance?" (I'm just not going to the party...:P)

Ok, I'm going to drop a smoke bomb and run. Pretend you don't see me, k?

 

There's a reason so many TV dramas are set in hospitals, police stations, or tourist destinations. These are places where it's easy to introduce new characters for short- or long-term plots. Schools are popular for having a large range of potential characters, though introducing new characters is a little more restricted.

[Myr]

14 hours ago, Graeme said:

though introducing new characters is a little more restricted.

The old transfer student trope...

Or New Kid In School...