I mentioned earlier the two ways I have been toying with introducing important characters. Well, I’ve found myself in a dilemma where I’ve come up with a 3rd that seems to work best for introducing the main antagonist of the first book.

After the new opening that I have written, the antagonist is introduced as a POV character. I’ve been stuck on this scene, however, since I started trying to write it. And I mean stuck! But I forced myself to do the only thing I could and that is to just write, no matter how bad it may come out or how off the point of what I am trying to accomplish it may seem. I trust myself enough to know that there will be something that will come out in the writing that will point me in the right direction.

And, finally, it did. I realized why I have been stuck. I was caught in a spot where the reader is not only meeting the antagonist for the first time, but has no idea that this is even the antagonist at all, as there is no mention of this character up to this point in the new beginning I’ve written.

I’ve been trying to think of a way to write this scene - which is pretty important overall — and not slow it down with all of the information the reader needs to know in regards to who this character is.

One of my biggest challenges is keeping the narrative as 3rd person without injecting the all knowing author info dump on the reader. I want the story and character interactions to provide information, not me as the writer.

However, without using the omni-voice, there hasn’t been an opportunity to inform the reader about the antagonist.

And then, last night I finally realized that I had the perfect place to do so. I realized that my new beginning wasn’t finished after all. I realized that there is an important question one of the two characters at the beginning would ask the other once they realized what was about to happen. And I did not have the character ask the question!

Now, I realize that in asking this question, part of the answer to it will inform the reader of this antagonist and what they suspect he will seek to do.

And so, the scene that I have been struggling with suddenly has taken on a new life. It now has a tension level that was not there before.

While all of the above may seem minor to some, for me, it is sort of like opening a door. By simply asking and answering a question, the scene that follows carries instant tension for the reader, without changing the way it is written because now the reader knows the intent of the character and, to a degree, what is at stake if he isn’t stopped in this one small thing.

I guess it is far easier to introduce a protagonist without the reader having any foreknowledge of the character, than trying to introduce an antagonist this way.

and Chris, way up top, thanks for stopping by.

X has to deliver a secret package to the aide de camp of a notorious crime lord. X meets Y in an alley, and Y is rude and condescending to X, every bit the arrogant cruel-seeming lackey.

X escapes the encounter unscathed and retraces his/her steps, thinking, ‘gods, I’m glad this is as close as I have to get to that horrible part of the underworld.’ (thus perhaps setting up future conflict when poor X will fall into the underworld due to circumstances beyond her/his control).

The chapter changes. Now we scuttle with Y on the labyrinthine trail back to the lair of the crimelord, seeing the world from Ys’ pov. Maybe Y is just as obnoxious and arrogant as s/he seemed from X’s pov, but maybe Y is terrified, with family held hostage for Y’s good behavior, or maybe Y is an undercover agent, or a survivor of abuse, or a cashiered soldier fallen on hard times, or - and so on.

I look forward to any detail you will be able to add to the “how” of introducing characters. To expand upon this, I’m still working through which important characters will bear the extra burden of being a POV character.

Must a POV character be introduced in the story as a POV character or does it work if an existing character suddenly becomes a POV character?

Right now I am toying with two options:

1. Use a recently introduced character to lead the reader to the next important character through an interaction these two will have.

2. Introduce the next important character and lead the reader back to a character they have already been introduced to as a way to begin weaving the interconnectivity that all of the important characters will have with the overall story arc.

Charles, I really want to come back to this in detail later. How characters and situations are introduced is so important. I think both of these options can work well; it’s clear to me that you’re thinking this through in the right way.

The key seems to be to make the linkage easy for the reader. Leaps are difficult; paths that join into other paths are easier.

well, to me authorial discovery is telling. That’s the big sign it’s there and that it won’t work for a reader.

I come at it from the approach of showing behavior of a character that 1. defines them as a character 2. propels the story 3. raises questions that I’ve defined as integral and neccessary to the story. I agree that a lot of openings have to be scrapped and rewritten when you know more. But then, maybe you plotter-types don’t have that problem.