Young Writers Society

So I feel like I need some advice. I'm writing out a post for one of my Storybooks, and in this post, a character sees a figure from their past, who they had thought were dead. They then lose sight of that person.

How should that be approached? Should it instantly be fleshed out who this figure is, and their relationship with the protagonist? Or should it be more of a mystery to the reader, and gradually revealed who it might be?

Well, what works best for the story that you're telling? Is it beneficial to keep your reader in suspense and does it contribute to the overall narrative, or is it better to immediately flesh out who this character is? Revealing a dead character isn't a one-size-fits-all situation.

One problem that I see arising with immediately fleshing out who this figure is lies in how you may do it. It can be very easy to move into info-dump territory when introducing a new character.

Also, I'm not sure if you've ever gone through this, but do you ever just recount everything about a person you were certain you'd never see again? I'd imagine that I'd probably recall snippets and try to process the information at hand in bits and pieces instead of just immediately thinking, "Oh yeah, that was Brett from dance class where I met him five years ago. He helped me how to pirouette and then enrolled me in a dance academy. It's a shame that he died in a car crash on May 1st..."

Personally, I'd probably hint at the figure and maybe have my main character push down thoughts about this dead character. "No, it can't be [dead character]! They're dead!" Then I would probably have my main character's thoughts linger back to that person, expanding and exploring memories little by little. I wouldn't keep it a total mystery, but I'd add just enough info to keep my readers wanting to know more. I'd then reveal their history during a consequential moment in the plot.

This probably all largely depends on your writing style and the tone that you're aiming for. If you're still uncertain, then I'd experiment a little bit. I'd write the scene where the main character immediately fleshes out their relationship and then I'd write a separate scene where it's kept a mystery. Go with whatever result you like best!

Hopefully this helps. If you have any questions or if you want to chat about this, then just tag me!

Ughhh... that's a tough one.

If you info-dump then you risk it being boring and irrelevant. If you obscure then you risk it appearing boring and irrelevant. I would say make note of the things that are important to the current situation and use a lot of indirect explanation.

Like, instead of going into the detail of explaining their relationship, you could demonstrate it by the way the character reacts. They might have a panic reaction from some ingrained negative association with this person , or they might brush it off because they spent so long after their death looking for them in crowds that they just assume this is another hallucination.

If you do it this way then it becomes important to the reader because it's important to the character, who by this time your reader will be invested in. Even if they don't care about the stranger in the crowd, they'll respond to them and understand the importance simply because of your characters reaction.

Then you can leave a trail of breadcrumbs as to who they actually are through references in the chapters to come. Maybe the incident might make your character start recalling or mentioning them more.

Or at least, that's the way I would do it.

*Added note:* I didn't notice the date of this post until after I'd typed the response and realise you probably already wrote this part already =p I'll post it up anyway in case it becomes useful at some future point.

Out of curiosity, if you have already written it, would you be able to link me to the post you wrote? I'm curious about how you managed it in the end.