✏️Characters!✏️

A big part of any sort of novel is the characters! Even if you have the best plot in the words, if you have bad, half-baked characters that just feel like they exist solely to move the story along,the reader won't sick around (Even though a plot is quite important as well!). But if you manage to make characters the readers truly care about, the reader will want to stay and see how they develop and grow over the course of the story, as boring as the plot may be!

However, the next question would be, ‘how do I show that my characters are interesting without info dumping?’ Especially with new authors, it is quite tempting to tell the reader right away what makes your character so unique and special. But, and I speak from experience, tossing a truckload of information all at once is a sure fire way to drive any reader away!

When wanting to make the readers interested in your character, you should introduce a small bit of information about them in the way they act, talk, etc.

Take this as an example:

Dave inspects the boy in front of him. The kid has carroty orange hair, looks spick and span neat, and has a rather confused and insecure look on his face.

Heh, another rich private school kid. This oughta be easy, Dave thinks silently, before pulling his tattered paperboy cap over his eyes more to try and seem a little more intimidating. “Good evenin’, sir! Could you spare a dollar or two for a poor soul like myself?” His thick New York accent seemed quite out of place, all the way out here in Colorado.

Here, we’re dropping just enough information about Dave to make the reader intrigued, but not overwhelmed. If we were to info-dump, here’s what this small passage might be:

Dave inspects the boy in front of him. He’s no stranger to kids like this, he’s met a lot of them while panhandling on his wanderings from his foster home in New York. The kid has carroty orange hair, looks spick and span neat, and has a rather confused and insecure look on his face. Heh, another rich private school kid. This oughta be easy, Dave thinks silently, before pulling his tattered paperboy cap, one of his only possessions from his miserable life before the days of busking and begging and foster care, over his eyes more to try and seem a little more intimidating, a tactic of his that always worked. “Good evenin’, sir! Could you spare a dollar or two for a poor soul like myself?” His thick New York accent seemed quite out of place, all the way out here in Colorado. He was quite used to being called out for it.

Happy Writing!

- Mello