Lecture 5 Introducing Characters Properly.
In our first two lectures about character, we talked in general about how characters are different from real people and from each other, but in this lecture, we'll talk about what all characters have in common— primarily, that they are all constructed out of specific details. Further, both the writer and the reader are most aware of those specific details in the moment they meet a character. In this lecture, we'll look at how you make that first impression by exploring five ways to introduce characters: (1) through straightforward description, (2) by showing the character in action, (3) through first-person narration, (4) through report by other characters, and (5) by placing the character in a specific time and place.

Straightforward description
Perhaps the most straightforward way to introduce a character is to simply describe him or her. For example, here are the first few lines from Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim: He was an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfully built, and he advanced straight at you with a slight stoop of the shoulders, head forward, and a fixed from-under stare which made you think of a charging bull. His voice was deep, loud, and his manner displayed a kind of dogged self-assertion which had nothing aggressive in it. ... He was spotlessly neat, appareled in immaculate white from shoes to hat, and in the various Eastern ports where he got his living as a ship-chandler's water-clerk he was very popular. (p. 1)
Here, the main character comes right off the page at the reader; we see him vividly and whole. This introduction is compelling and intriguing: Here's an attractive character who also has a bit of mystery about him. In addition, the introduction sums up the main character in a nutshell: He has something to prove to himself, and the rest of the book shows why that's so and how he goes about it.
Conrad's introduction is also economical. Rather than lingering over details, it merely suggests physical attributes that evoke awkwardness the slight stoop of the shoulders; the deep, loud voice and adds a few conjectures about Jim's character that his manner was assertive but not aggressive. Jim is shown to us here, not told; he is evoked.
Notice that although this description is detailed and specific, it's not tied to a specific moment in Jim's life. Note, too, that this is an example of a character being introduced to us from the outside in: We're seeing how he appears to other people, not how he seems to himself.

A Character In Action
A character who is introduced to us through a specific action comes from the book Light by Eva Figes: The sky was still dark when he opened his eyes and saw it through the uncurtained window. He was upright within seconds, out of the bed and had opened the window to study the signs. It looked good to him, the dark just beginning to fade slightly, midnight blueblack growing grey and misty, through which he could make out the last light of a dying star. It looked good to him, a calm pre-dawn hush without a breath of wind, and not a shadow of cloud in the high clear sky. He took a deep breath of air, heavy with night scents and dew on earth and foliage. His appetite for the day thoroughly aroused, his elated mood turned to energy, and he was into his dressing room, into the cold bath which set his skin tingling, humming an unknown tune under his breath. (pp. 1-2)
This opening is dynamic in a way that the opening of Lord Jim is not.
The character is in action, with all his senses awake, right from the first sentence. And, unlike the opening of Lord Jim, where we can only surmise what Jim is thinking from his appearance, Figes gives us direct access to the character's thoughts. Although we don't know it yet, this is the French artist Claude Monet, and he's just decided that this will be a good day to paint.
Again, unlike the opening of Lord Jim, this opening tells us nothing of the man's physical appearance and very little about his psychology.
In Lord Jim, it's the hint of complexity in the character that invites us to keep reading, but in this case, it's the character's energy and our curiosity to discover why he's so engaged with the natural world that propel us forward.

Direct Address To The Reader (Movies it's called Breaking The 4th Wall.)
Another way to introduce a main character is to have him or her directly address the reader. Three of the books that are often cited as the great American novel open this way: Moby-Dick, The Great Gatsby, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

A modern example of a novel whose narrator addresses the reader on the opening page is Kate Christensen's The Epicure's Lament: October 9, 2001—All the lonely people indeed. Whoever they are, I've never been one of them. The lack of other people is a balm. It's the absence of strain and stress. I understand monks and hermits, anyone who takes a vow of silence or lives in a far-flung cave. And I thought—I hoped, rather-that I would live this way for the rest of my life, whatever time is left to me. (p. 3)
In the subsequent paragraphs, we get some more information about this narrator, Hugo Whittier, but mainly what this opening does is draw the reader in with a specific and intriguing voice. We see immediately that the character is literate and erudite; that he not only prefers his own company, but he harbors an active hostility to other people; and that he's something of a fatalist, who doesn't expect to live much longer.
With these types of introductions, the paragraphs that follow the opening lines start to fill in details about the character's history and current situation, but what draws us in is the fact that we're hearing individual people tell us their stories in a way that only they can. Even if we don't know what they look like or see them in action right away, we know we're hearing from a unique individual.

Introduction By Report
Another way to introduce a character is through the eyes of other Characters. Jim in Lord Jim is one character introduced in this way. Willian Faulkner also introduces Miss Emily in this way in his story "A Rose for Emily": When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old man-servanta combined gardener and cook— had seen in at least ten years. (Collected Stories, p. 119)
Notice that the unnamed first-person narrator speaks on behalf of a town. After a few paragraphs that describe Miss Emily's history and her standoffish relationship with the town, we get a physical description of her. Interestingly, this description is also given from the point of view of the entire community; this is important in the story because Miss Emily has become an object of fascination to the townspeople.
Faulkner deploys vivid, even pungent details to describe Miss Emily, comparing her appearance to that of a bloated corpse submerged in water. This physical description foreshadows a great deal about the character and her story without being explicit, while leaving the reader with an extremely vivid— perhaps repulsive visual impression.

Introduction through Time and Place
One last way of introducing a character is by the technique of situating him or her in a specific time or place. We see this approach in the opening paragraph of Robert Stone's A Flag for Sunrise: Father Egan left off writing, rose from his chair and made his way a little unsteadily- to the bottle of Flor de Cana which he had placed across the room from his desk. The study in which he worked was lit by a Coleman lamp; he had turned the mission generators off to save kerosene. The shutters were open to receive the sea breeze and the room was cool and pleasant. At Freddy's Chicken Shack up the road a wedding party was in progress and the revelers were singing along with the radio form Puerto Alvarado, marking the reggae beat with their own steel drums and crockery. (p. 3)
This introduction relies almost entirely on the character's circumstances and a little bit of action rather than a description or direct access to his thoughts. We get no physical description of Father Egan, but we know from the first sentence that he's a bit of a scholar and that he's been drinking.
The rest of the paragraph says nothing about Father Egan specifically but, with great economy and expert handling of detail, shows us that he lives at a mission near the sea in a Third World country. We get a compelling portrait of a lonely, drunken priest-cut off from any intellectual stimulation and far from home-that simultaneously uses the setting to show us the character and the character's point of view to show us the setting.

Approaches To Creating Characters
Each of these examples is constructed with specific, evocative details, and more important, each introduction tells us at least one thing about the character that turns out to be important later on. This leads us to the question: How much does the writer have to know about a character before he or she starts writing?
As we've said, you don't need to write a story or a novel in the same order as it will be read. You can craft the meatier parts of the character's story first, then go back and write the opening in such a way as to foreshadow what you've already written.
Character introductions rarely rely solely on one technique but often combine several: introduction by report, by physical description, and by showing the character in action.

Another method is to work out all of a character's physical details, history, and context in advance. Some writers even create dossiers or journals for their major characters, crafting detailed histories and compiling idiosyncrasies before they ever put the characters in a story. This method may make it easier to decide what the characters are likely to do in various situations as the plot develops.
Many writers follow a more indirect, exploratory, and improvisatory process. They may start with only a little bit of information about a character perhaps even a single trait rather than a full portrait, then gradually add details as the character develops. This method enables the writer to learn about the character in the same way that the reader will—a little at a time, through a process of discovery.
-James Hynes.

Suggested Reads.
Writing Fictiom by Burroway.
The Epicure's Lament by Christensen.
Lord Jim by Conrad.
A Rose For Emily by Faulkner.
Light by Figes.
The Wild Colonial Boy by Hynes.
A Flag For Sunrise by Stone.

Writing Prompt Exercise
Choose someone, either in your personal life or in the public eye, about whom you know a great deal; write a paragraph about this person as if you were introducing him or her for the first time as a fictional character.
Bear in mind as you write that your imaginary reader is meeting this character for the first time; thus, you should think about what sort of first impression your character makes: how he or she looks, acts, and speaks.
If you're writing about someone famous, write it as if that person isn't famous yet. If you're writing about someone you know personally, write as if that person will never read it-and don't share your results.

Magic_Pyrix RoyalBunny7 enjoy!