THIS CHAPTER IS MEANT FOR NOVELISTS AND SCREENWRITERS.

The chapter will be divided into 3 sections, which go as follows:

P1- The intoduction. Introduce your character to hook your audience. This also discusses the point of view your story is told from. This part will be using the 1994 film, "The Shawshank Redemption" as an example. You do not need to have seen the movie to understand this section.

P2- Introducing your main character. This will explain how you could go wrong when introducing the literal biggest character of your book.

P3- Introducing your villain. We're not introducing lousey villains here. Make their intro POP OUT!

Part One: The Introduction

My personal favorite thing about all of my stories are my characters. But introducing them is hard, even when its the beginning of the story and I'm introducing the reader to, well, everything. Introducing characters can be done in many ways. Through drama, humor, terror, crisis, accident, or coincidence, two or more characters can meet. But you want to keep it interesting, especially if the character you're introducing is an important one to your story.

You can't always rely on your main character to already have a formed relationship with the other characters in your story. Unless it's an old friend, family, neighbor, a teacher, etc, having a character already know another character that's important isn't very.... Enticing. In fact, it's flat out boring. Especially if you are writing a romance. I know childhood friends is a popular trope but if the two have known each other their whole lives, when you introduce one it just feels like... "Oh look, thats the guy I grew up with and is utterly not important."

So here's some spicy ways to introduce a new character! (These are just ideas, you can do something else if you want.)

1. Have one character save another.

This could be through saving one from a car accident, from making a mistake, from harassment, from a dangerous animal, or really just from death. A stranger helping a stranger is exciting! Sometimes, this can be what triggers the plot, such as with the studio ghibli film, "The Cat Returns", where the main character saves a cat from being hit by a truck, the cat ends up being a prince, and to thank her, his whole cat kingdom literally abducts her to try and get her to marry into the royal family. It is so weird. It is truly beyond weird.

2. Have characters meet each other at an event.

This is also very simple and could be boring but that depends on your story. If it's a slice of life, romance, or general fiction/non fiction, this is perfect. Ex: wedding, funeral, sport, family gathering, holiday, school event, etc. This already establishes a common interest between the two, even its by the chance they know the same person or are both interested in whatever they're at a convention for, such as anime or art. I think this works best if you're setting up a romance or comedy.

3. Have one character do something nice for another out of kindness.

This goes along with the first point but less extreme. Character A helps pick up a mess that character B made on accident. Or maybe Character B offers to pay for character A's groceries when they find they can't afford it. It establishes what kind of person they are, so please don't do this if you're introducing a douche bag character. It'll make all their actions following it see out of character. Maybe this affects the plot even. The most absurd example I can think of is in the danmei novel series, "Heaven Official's Blessing," where the main character, Xie Lian, saves a child from falling to his death, then keeps the child by his side for a bit to ensure he is safe and shows him a kindness the child had never seen before. The child is Hong Hong-er who becomes infatuated by Xie Lian and his obsession literally builds his character.

4. Have the characters placed in a group together, or forced to work together.

This works well, especially if you want to start an enemies to lovers trope by having them not get along. Or maybe they work together great and you start a great friendship between them. This can also go for sharing a college dorm, being placed on the same team together, having to share a cabin at camp, etc. "Omg, they were roommates..."

5. Have character A get sent to character B on a side quest.

Ex: "Go to the mountains to seek answers from the witch of the sky." Great! Now this witch character just got introduced and you haven't even met them yet.

6. Have them forced together by accident.

Ex: They bump into each other on accident, they get stuck in an elevator together, some tragic accident forced them to meet, etc. This makes me think of webtoon's "Brimstone and Roses" where the main girl literally gets forced by her cocky demon friend to run into a man on the streets which triggers the most cliche romance. It starts with "omg we ran into each other" and immediately has the "I'll do something nice for you" trope which builds a romance and then that romance becomes toxic and......

7. The reason they meet is what plays a big role in the plot.

Perhaps this is through a prophecy one was following (which is the case with my book, Land of Armonia), maybe they're thrown into a dystopian environment together like the Hunger Games or Squid Games, perhaps they're trapped in a haunted mansion, even.

There's really a lot of ideas you could do but the worst way to introduce a character is to have them introduce themselves. That makes no sense, right? No, I mean it. They can't just see each other and go "Hello! I'm Zoey!" because that feels utterly wrong and inhuman. Now, they can introduce themselves in some contexts but thats after they initially meet. What I'm saying is, they can't introduce themselves AS their introduction, you know?

So seriously, make it spicy.

Part Two: Introducing your main character.

This is literally the most important part of your story because this is your most important character. That's right. THIS IS YOUR MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTER. This character is who should be either telling your story, or driving the plot forward. You can have multiple main characters, but there is going to be a very clear one, two, or even three that are the most important. Having three is even stretching it. But still. IMPORTANCE!!!

It doesn't matter what perspective your story is being told by, your main character should be the first character introduced. Using perspective is a huge tool for this. If it's in first point of view, then obviously they're gonna be the first character introduced. The second you say "I" you will have introduced that character.

(This mini section will only apply to novelists)

For first point of view, it is important you convey personaility through your writing. The readers are directly seeing their thoughts and feelings, and really, the whole world through their lense. I do not usually write using this style, because I like to jump between characters to set the mood. However, that is just a technique of writing.

1st POV is when the main character tells the story (or you can be creative and have a side character tell the story from their POV ABOUT the main character). This would be writing the whole booke like this:

"I woke up drowing in my own sweat. I could not feel my toes, and my tongue felt dry and fat. I was terribly sick, but nonetheless, managed to find the ability to stand so that I could go get water. My mom did something and then I went and did another action, and I said this, and they said that, and I'm telling the story using I/me/my/myself pronouns. My story cannot switch to anone else's perspective without looking cringe, unless the author writing my story knows what they're doing and can pull that off in a really cool epic way."

You didn't realize it, but I introduced a character to you right there. Nameless, yes, but a character is a character all the same. When writing from this perspective, you may not find out what the MC's name is for a while. It would be unatural if you character just said it to themselves. This is why writing like this cane become rather tricky. You see, you cannot have a character walk in front of a mirror and go, "I looked at myself in the mirror. I had muddy brown eyes and tan skin. My figure was slim, perhaps even boney. My black hair was coiled around my shoulders elegantly. I'm so beautiful, and I am a self insert for the author, and this is the most cringiest way to introduce myself."

Instead, introduce your character through personality. You may not get to describe them for a while so hang tight! If their appearance is necessary for the reader to know, you can easily have them describe themselves by seeing an older picture of them and having them narrate: "I was so young back then. My old blue dyed hair is now a sad off yellow color since I haven't found the will to cut it or redye it. My clothes used to be so tidy, but now I choose to drown in my oversized sweatshirts just to hide my body. I look at that picture, and I see a little girl who doesn't understand the horrors that middle school was about to put us through. I can't believe I've changed that much in just one year."

You can also add to their appearance by having other characters say things like, "your hair is getting so long! It's almost to your waist now!" or "why don't you scoot over, fatass." or even "you painted your nails again!? They look so pretty!"

You must also set the tone of your character without having them delibretly describe themselves. Make the narration feel sad, tired, run down.... depressed.... Your character is gloomy. Make the narration sarcastic, sassy, silly, maybe a bit stressed, and your character is Percy Jackson, or rather, just a fun character with a bright personality. YOU ARE FORBIDDEN FROM HAVING YOUR CHARACTER NARRATE LIKE THIS: "I am usually really upbeat and sarcastic. I like horses. I am also super smart." YOU HAVE TO SHOW THOSE TRAITS AS YOU GO. YOU'RE AN ARTIST. BE ARTISTIC ABOUT IT.

(The screenwriters may now return to this section, which applies to screenplays and novels)

Writing from other perspectives is much nicer. The rules generally do still apply here as they did with first POV. You can't have a character just state who they are.

I am going to use the 1994 film, "The Shawshank Redemption," as an example here. The film was based off of Steven King's novella, but I haven't read that, so to make it clear, I am talking about just the movie.

Shawshank Redemption immediately introduced our main character by putting him in a courtroom to be judged. As first impressions shape how your viewer sees a character for the rest of the story, it is almost poetic that the very first scene here puts our main character, Andy, on trial. The other nameless characters are judging him, he's barely pleading his case, and immediately the viewer speculates if he's the good guy or not. He's literally being judged by everyone in the room, including the audience.

The scene shows glimses of a crime and paints a picture. "Andy killed his cheating wife. He's going to jail. He is not a good person." But somehow you still think, "did he kill his wife? Is he a good person?" and WOW that sets up the plot whilst introducing the main guy.

The story is told through the perspective of a different character named Red. He never speculated anything about Andy. Andy rarely talks. You'd almost think Red is the main character if he wasn't so focused on telling Andy's story. This is the perfect example of how to tell a story from an outside perspective, while also introducing characters in a way that they get to build upon themselves over time.

The movie never adresses who exactly Andy is. You just accept that he's kind of weird, later learn he's actually smart (especially with banking, as that was his former job), and he's really reserved. He is so mysterious, that just his introduction, and building upon that introduction, makes you more curious about him specifically. Red is curious too, but his narration makes you feel like, "yeah. This is Andy. He's some guy in prison with me that I'm becoming friends with." ONLY TO LATER REVEAL Andy has been doing things Red didn't even know about, and like rapid fire at the end of the movie, WE FINALLY KNOW WHO ANDY IS. And it's not a secret identity. We finally figure out his personality and character... AT THE END.

It was build up. It was strong build up. And it had a huge payoff. THAT is how to write an intriguing main character.

Part Three: Introducing Your Villain

I loved Harry Potter as a kid. But I see so many flaws in it now. And the most obvious, especially with this section, is the predictable villains. The first book did a good job at making you think that Voldemort was this idea of a bad guy who could maybe return, and he'd just ominously looming over the plot without actually existing the whole time. Only to reveal that our "Defense Against the Dark Arts" teacher was working with him all along and Harry has to face off against him in the end.

Second book. Voldemort is still an invisible threat. You know he's gonna come eventually, but theres a bigger threat at Hogwarts now and- oh, wouldn't you know it, the new defense against the dark arts teacher is the bad guy. That's... twice in one row....

Third book! Voldemort is put on the back burner because SIRIUS BLACK is DEFINITELY the bad guy. Yes. He's the villain here. And the dark arts teacher is acting weirdly suspicious and- Oh. Neither of them are bad. But we still have to face our werewolf dark arts teacher at the end. How.... ironic....

FOURTH BOOK!!!! Voldemort is eminately aproaching BUT WE DON'T CARE because there's a tournament going on and Harry gets to do something "fun" for once. AND OH NO! Our first major character death! And who kills him?! Voldemort! The guy we've been talking about for the past three books now but was never really a threat until now! He's back! And who helped bring him back? THE NEW DEFENSE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS TEACHER!

Fifth book... Okay. Voldemort is back. We have a villain now. A real, solid villain that has been built up over the course of four books and- erm- where'd he go? I guess he's not plot relevent here... We have the death eats though! That's exciting! Surely they're the villains- It's the new defense the dark arts teacher. Who would of guessed she'd be evil.

Sixth book...? Voldemort?????? You there buddy???? You okay?? I'm a little worried because you kind of just don't exist. And Snape is now the defense against the dark arts teacher so Snape must be EVIL! Argue all you want, he is evil. He is abusive. But finally, thats not the villain of this book. The villain is- Draco? No... Snape? Death eaters? DUMBLEDOOR? No... Oh look, no villain thats not Voldemort who's on vaction.

SEVENTH BOOK! Harry is on the run. No more fear of the dark arts teachers because he ain't even at school. Instead we FINALLY have Voldemort and the death eaters as our villains but by now, I still don't give a fingle flying shit about Voldemort because he was introduced as a tumor on some guys head. I cannot take him seriously. And I do not know what his beleivable motivation is.

Did you catch the pattern?

Villains should not be predicatable. And if you're working for a plot twist villain, you cannot overuse it or else your reader will already know who the bad guy is going to be. You also cannot allow your villains to be dull. When you introduce them, whether as a seemingly good person or obviously the villain, take a step back and see how they might be perseived.

Even if you have a system of villains that your chracter must defeat to get to the "Voldemort" of their story, introduce them with care. Please. I'm begging you.

When you introduce them as a villain (not to be perseived as one of the good guys at first. Like, they are very clearly the bad guy here) you must make their motivations known.

Lets take James Cameron's Avatar, for example. We have an organization of people who are the bad guys but the big one is the cheif comander. He's friendly to our main guy, but you can clearly see he's not a good person. He doesn't care about what other people say or think, because he thinks they're all stupider than him. It is clear that he is out tough final boss right from the beginning. You also know his motivation, because it is the very reason Jake, our main guy, is there; Explore Pandora, take the ores found there back to Earth for money, create more funding for the exploration project of Pandora, and then make this place suitable for humans to live. Brilliant. You can see why anyone would get behind that plan and you know it'll be the conflict of the movie the second Jake says thats what he's there to do.

And immediately we meet our bad guy. Right after Jake explains the situation, we run into him. It's practically screaming in your face that this guy? This guy right here? He's the villain.

If you have any questions, ask them in the comments!