I am a dashing fourteen year old girl in the middle of her shining years. I take everything for granted and have a strong attachment for anyone that can wink. I currently get a kick out of putting people down whether about their stories or about the way they think. It has been life long dream of mine to take over the world and any one of my few friends can confirm that I am a selfish sadistic bitch. It has nothing to do with how amazing I am and jealous they are. I like to give people nicknames because they are not important enough for me to remember their real names.
Hello everyone that has been reading this, I am making a point. Character introductions and the impressions they make. *takes the pose of a documentary commentator* How do they affect a story? *gets a really serious face* Studies have shown *over the course of five seconds ago* that impressions are the things that draw in readers. As I have so heartily explained before, they stick, which is why forwords and any other way of introducing a character in a story is very important. In writing, and I don't think I have expressed this very well, all forms of writing are acceptable. What I am saying is not an opinion, but something I have seriously thought about after being introduced to it.
Back several months ago when I loved all stories and didn't tear them apart at the commas, I read a completed story with several reviews in it. Okay, two. There was something with the way the reviewer pointed things out that made me consider how I would write my own forword. *This was before I started writing fics* They said that giving a complete character introduction took away from the stories affect and really made some of the things in the story less important or meaningless/ repetitive. I thought about a lot because when I look back on that, it was really true. I wasn't surprised when anything happened and I was bored at some places. Now for some reason, when I read a fic I get extremely, like beyond normal at a crazy obsessed level critical about how the forword is written. Fucking OCD genes.
I think I'll make a character introduction *MAKE!!!!!* for my latest fanfic as an example.
Jaejoong- Young criminal that will get kicked out of his home because he is breaking all of societies laws. He is rebellious but still has a conscience of what is wrong and right. He is poor and starving and gets sick easily. Luckily he is married to a nurse so he can continue working with machines to his sad little heart's desire
Yuri (OC)- Jaejoong's wife that is very protective over the man. She makes sure they stay healthy so Junsu doesn't find any other reason to kill them. Takes freedom very seriously.
Junsu-the Governor of his province. He is rude and follows rules strictly. When he finds law breakers he makes sure to torture them and start to follow his rules. He gets tired easily because he has never really worked a day in his life and can't when in a battle between Jaejoong and himself.
Yunho- A young bachelor that spends his days playing with his robot because he has that leisure. He doesn't really follow rules either, but he is rich and gets by with it. His robot is on the chopping block though because Junsu says it is against the law to own it. Yunho works with computers so he helps Jaejoong and Yuri with their escape.
Yoochun-The rebel leader of the neighboring sector. He is also the governor of his sector and is leading them in a revolt. He also takes part in the escape of the Kim couple.
Changmin- I am not even going to write this because I'm not kidding it would be way too much of a spoiler and I can't bring myself to do it. I would kill myself if I did this anymore because I hate that I wrote all of that in the first place. Seriously not kidding.
You might think that introduction is fine, but why don't I point out some things.
The initial plot of the story was just revealed and we really don't know what this story is about.
I know I have stressed beyond infinity the importance of characterizing, but this is not the way to do it. Good writers can make a character by writing about them throughout chapters. These little notes about characters in the intro are good for references, and they should be kept to the author. Another thing I want to say, by writing things out 'He is a playboy, he doesn't care, he is heartless.' It makes it extremely hard for people to find show quotes, if you get what I mean. My amazing teacher tells us that when we pull quotes from a story to show characterization we need to show that the person is they way they are, not tell. 'He slept around with five different girls, he watched the clouds float by as the fire burned around him, he ignored their pleas of love.' By thinking that the entire story could be searched for quotes the whole fic could tell a story, not show it. Get it?
So we need to stop telling about our characters and show them, throughout the story, not in the forword. If we do introduce the characters it should be physical characteristics and a few personality traits with explanations that don't reveal the story. I'll do Yoochun again.
Yoochun- a strong and confident person that leads his people in the direction he thinks is right. He has eyecatching wavy hair and a rather large forehead. And so on...
It sounds the same, but the plot wasn't revealed. Now we ask, how will people know to read our story? Well, we provided a taste of the story to draw them in. I have never done a character introduction in my stories before and I know pretty well that people don't really need them. Instead of that, once I deem that the person is writing in English I want to jump right into the action and get things started. I love when forwords are of a little prologue or preface that give the reader a glimps of how the author writes and also gives a little bit of the plot without giving too many things away with things like summaries. While summaries are okay, they should only be of the first chaper or so because when first starting a fic people want the information provided in the beginning to really take part in the story.
Prologues, short intro summaries, prefaces, plotless character descriptions.
Now there was this one forword I liked. It gave a preface and mentioned only one name, one of the main characters. That pleased me, but I got to the first chapter and *it was written in 1st person* they started introductions with "Oh, hi there, I didn't notice you, I am ....." That killed it. I felt like I was dragged back to 2nd grade and forced to write stories again. Like, excuse me, but we aren't really in the same room, just pretend I'm not here. I thought I could get over it, but them POV changed and the next person said 'My name is....' and I wanted to stab my computer.
As much as I like to be informed as a reader, don't TELL me about the character. There are some things that are okay to point out like 'I can ace any test,' or 'my cooking is top notch.' Other things turn out to be arrogant sounding, even if the character isn't. Even as I was reading the first introduction I thought the character sounded a little self centered, even though their actions showed they were just an apathetic person. So no no to the 'I am' intros
UNLESS...
It is perfectly acceptable in my book to introduce a character through talking or by written things like 'I wrote my name ___ ____ on the test,' or "_____" my mother called. In fact, I've done that. *Which is why I say it is okay to do, because I am always right.*
You say 'hi' I say 'bye'. 'Nuff said.
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