First impressions matter. That’s why when you go on a first date or to a job interview, you make sure you’re wearing your best clothes and your best smile.
When it comes to stories, the way you introduce a character can determine whether your readers care for that person from the get go. In this post, you’ll learn some of the most important things you need to remember to create memorable first impressions for your characters.
How to Introduce a Character in a Memorable Way
Here are some tips for introducing your characters in a way that will make your readers remember and care for them:
1. Show how they behave.
In real life, we tend to remember people by the way they act—especially if it’s particularly endearing or annoying! The same is true for characters in stories.
When you introduce a character, focus on showing your readers the character’s quirks through the way they behave. This will give them a context in which they can imagine that person, and make for easier recall in future scenes.
Perhaps this is why Jane Austen’s Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice is very easy to remember: Elizabeth Bennet’s first encounter with him includes his snide remarks, and we see clearly how he acts and how it stirs up Elizabeth’s indignation.
2. Focus on the uniqueness in their physical appearance.
Describing how a character looks usually doesn’t make as strong an impression as introducing a character trait. But if they have a memorable physical trait, or if the physical appearance is an integral part of the story, feel free to spend a few lines on those.
For example, Francine Pascal’s Sweet Valley series revolves around identical twins Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield. Each book in the series always spends a few lines in the first chapter describing how they look: long blonde hair, blue-green eyes, a dimple in their left cheeks, and, in the high school books, even their perfect size 6 clothing!
The point of these descriptions is not to show that they look exactly alike, but that they are exact opposites on the inside. After the paragraphs with details of their physical appearance, the book goes on to contrast flighty, party-loving Jessica with her more responsible and introverted sister.
This difference in their inner character is also evidenced by the different ways they wear their hair: Jessica always wears her hair down, while Elizabeth prefers to pull hers back in a ponytail or with barrettes.
3. Let your reader hear them speak.
Another way of introducing characters to help them stand out from the others is by giving them specific speaking habits. This can be through the use of colloquialism, or simply by giving them lines that they habitually use.
L.M. Montgomery is fond of using this technique. In her book Pat of Silver Bush, one of the secondary characters is an Irish woman given the charge of taking care of Pat and her siblings. She speaks with an Irish brogue, making her recognizable even in future scenes where the author skips dialogue tags!
4. Use their backstory or family history.
Backstory refers to everything that happened to your character before the book opens. Most editors recommend keeping the telling of backstory to a minimum, especially as part of introducing a character. But sometimes, it’s an essential element for the reader to understand why that character is there in the first place.
In Boede and Brock Thone’s book, Danzig Passage, one of the secondary characters is described as a weak-willed boy invited to be part of a rebel movement. The omnipresent narrator, as well as the other characters in the scene, introduce him as the son of his mother, a well-known name in the same movement a few years ago. This family connection is the main reason why he is welcome to the group, and is a necessary way of introducing the boy.
The tactic of introducing a character by giving us a condensed family history is often used in historical fiction and classic books.
Examples of Character Introductions
Here are some examples of excellent character introductions in famous books:
Cedric Errol from Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Cedric himself knew nothing whatever about it. It had never been even mentioned to him. He knew that his papa had been an Englishman, because his mamma had told him so; but then his papa had died when he was so little a boy that he could not remember very much about him, except that he was big, and had blue eyes and a long mustache, and that it was a splendid thing to be carried around the room on his shoulder. Since his papa’s death, Cedric had found out that it was best not to talk to his mamma about him. When his father was ill, Cedric had been sent away, and when he had returned, everything was over; and his mother, who had been very ill, too, was only just beginning to sit in her chair by the window.
From Chapter 1, Little Lord Fauntleroy
In this example, the author introduces us to her main character, a little boy named Cedric Errol, by describing important events that had happened in his life.
Although she doesn’t seem to describe him, we see how he responded to his father’s death: by not talking to his mother about it. From this little detail, we get a picture of a child who is concerned about other people’s feelings, particularly those of his mother’s.
Example #2. Scarlett O’Hara of Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tartleton twins were. In her face were too sharply blended the delicate features of her mother, a Coast aristocrat of French descent, and the heavy ones of her florid Irish father. But it was an arresting face, pointed of chin, square of jaw. Her eyes were pale green without a touch of hazel, starred with bristly black lashes and slightly tilted at the ends. Above them, her thick black brows slanted upward, cutting a startling oblique line in her magnolia-white skin—that skin so prized by Southern women and so carefully guarded with bonnets, veils and mittens against hot Georgia suns.
Sitting with Stuart and Brent Tartleton in the cool shade of the porch of Tara, her father’s plantation, that bright April afternoon of 1861, she made a pretty picture.
From Chapter 1, Gone with the Wind
This introduction to one of the most memorable characters in modern literature, Scarlett O’Hara, focuses on her physical appearance, but gives a reason why the author had to give it: because she was the dream of every boy in her town despite not being strikingly beautiful.
Showing her in the center of the attention of two twin boys gives the reader a glimpse of her character as a flirty and manipulative girl—a trait that she retains all through the end of the book.
How Do You Introduce a First Person Character?
One main difference in introducing a first person from a third person character is that we don’t ever introduce ourselves by describing the way we look!
Think about it. When you meet someone new, what do you automatically talk about? Perhaps you talk about your job, or your passions, or your favorites. This can give you an idea of how to introduce a first person character.
Check out this example of one of the most interesting first person character introductions in literature, from Moby Dick:
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.
As you can see, the introduction focuses on only one part of the character’s personality—in this case, his preferred way of shrugging off routine and boredom in daily life.
Introduce Characters Effectively
When you show your readers who a character is, he or she becomes more memorable and relatable to them. That helps you keep readers interested enough to care about them and to keep turning the pages.
That’s why it’s crucial to learn how to introduce your characters effectively. Also, think about how you create your characters, as this process will form the foundation of how you present them to your readers.
Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:
- 45 Types of Stock Characters to Help Build Your Story
- Show Don’t Tell Explained: Examples of Turning Bad Writing into Great Writing
- Obligatory Scenes and Their Place in Storytelling
- How to Write Engaging Character Descriptions
Yen Cabag is the Blog Writer of TCK Publishing. She is also a homeschooling mom, family coach, and speaker for the Charlotte Mason method, an educational philosophy that places great emphasis on classic literature and the masterpieces in art and music. She has also written several books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her passion is to see the next generation of children become lovers of reading and learning in the midst of short attention spans.
