Young Writers Society

When introducing several characters almost at once, what should I do? At one point in my book, the five main characters are thrown into a team, and I'm wondering how exactly I could introduce them without it feeling like a cop-out.

Most of these characters have been "met" already, but there's a lot about them that hasn't been shown or explored beyond just a brief conversation or action scene. I'd like to give each of them a more proper introduction in conversation (and introduce them to each-other as well, since so far they've only been seen through the protagonist's eyes), but I can't figure out exactly how to do so.

One idea I had was the oft-used in real life game where you say your name, home, and something about you, but that just feels like a cop-out. The other idea was to have the main character think about them during a "training exercise" the next day, but that would break the rule of "show don't tell," so that wouldn't be to amazing either.

Basically, I just need to know how to properly introduce several characters in a short span of time without it feeling rushed, poorly written, or unrealistic.

There's no real way to 'properly' introduce the characters, and while it seems like it's important to put down all their information right away, you don't have to. Dropping a bunch of exposition into your story will disrupt the flow and be out of place no matter how you do it.

So, what I'd say is to let their traits and interesting information about them be dropped into the story organically. You don't have to describe each character in a chunk before moving to the next- have them interact in several group scenes, where their important traits become apparent to one another through action and dialogue.

I hope this was helpful in any way

I've always found this to be something quite difficult too. Like sisterLuck says, there's no 'proper' way to introduce your characters. When introducing lots of characters at once into a story, I think there are a few things you could do:

-Describe something interesting/ original about them:
Perhaps something memorable about their physical appearance, or what they're like.

-Describe them in relation to other characters:
If one of the characters you're introducing is, for example, another character's sister, then that's always something you can put down, and again will be memorable.

-Show, don't tell
Like you said, you don't wanna break this rule, but it can be quite hard. Perhaps the way they walk into the scene, bouncing, skipping etc will start to give an indication to the reader of what the character is like.

Don't:
-Give a long physical description
It will ruin the pace of your story, and may become boring for the readers.

-Reveal everything about the character
As I said before, something memorable about the character will be good, so that the reader doesn't forget.

I don't know about you, but I have been reading a story in the past where I've lost track of who the characters are, but as I read on it became more clear. So my advice here is don't give too much too quickly, just reveal maybe one memorable attribute of the character. And don't worry if it's really confusing at first, as you write more of your story you can give each of the characters more definition.

I hope this was somewhat helpful ^^

I've recently needed to introduce many characters at once, and now, after writing my second draft (In my first draft I just threw them all in there) I pretty much took it as gradual and slow as I could. Basically, prior or after the point where the characters need to be introduced I have a scene that features them first, so when someone says "Oh this is bob" they already know who bob is so the reader is familiar and nothing more must be said. I also have scenes after, so during a introduction he says "And this is joe" but that is it as well, except the reader is still unfamiliar with joe. But joe does nothing in that scene so that's fine, then next chapter he gets a featured scene so the reader is later familiarised with him.

I'd first ask why you absolutely have to introduce so many characters in such a short time. If it's possible to introduce them slower, try that, but if not, I'd suggest to make the scenes where the main character first met them a little longer. Focus more heavily on the character relations and quirks when they're first introduced, just to give us a really vivid impression.

If you put a little more work at the beginning, then you're bringing in a certain amount of familiarity to the scene where they're all introduced. If you can introduce a few more than once, even better.

Also, do ease the characters in slowly. You can use potential MC confusion to your advantage, and have him meet everyone then talk to them individually later so you can get a slower introduction to everyone.