Too late for a new character?

Ruth2 · Aug 15, 2009

Okay, so I'm 40K into my WIP. It's chugging along nicely, the MCs and their sidekick have ended up in France and the female MC is getting to meet the family for the first time. INcluding the patriarch, who suddenly is becoming very important in this section.

Now I've read we're supposed to get all our main folks on stage asap. 40K isn't early by any measurement and I'm not sure what to do. Do I need him? Yep. Is he important? Yep. He does come in at the beginning of Part II; will that be enough or do i have to do some somersaults in Part I to make it okay?

Thanks y'all for any advice or tomatoes thrown.

Like a Fox · Aug 15, 2009

As a writer - I don't know. I haven't written anything that long yet.

As a reader - I see no problem with it. It would be breaking conventions, but I've never really thought that was a bad thing.

Madison · Aug 15, 2009

Don't worry about it, IMO. Intro'ing new characters along the way will keep your readers interested. I think it's a good thing.

Shenlon · Aug 15, 2009

*throws tomatoes* Just because.

Anyway... If the new character doesn't figure in at all in any way in the previous sections, then it's fine. If there's some way that he does, but you fail to tell us until later, then that's a little irritating. For the most part, though, I don't think it will be a problem.

Ruth2 · Aug 15, 2009

Like A Fox: This is my second full length novel. My first is awaiting revision and it's 125K. I've been trying to think of a novel of comparable length that did the same thing but I'm drawing a blank.

Madison: Thanks. I alway thought it was a "first on, last off; last on, first off" kind of thing but here I am, breaking that rule. I still have the second half of the book to go so..

Shenlon: If he figures in at all earlier in the story, I don't know about it. If I have to, I can mention his name in passing but it might be hard to shoehorn him in. Maybe five days have passed since the beginning of the story and a lot has happened so...

Thanks for the tomatoes!

Thanks y'all!

BriMaresh · Aug 15, 2009

I've heard that by the first two-thirds, all characters should be on-stage. I've also seen that rule broken so many times that I don't care to count them. If the character needs to be there, they need to be there. Finish the book and then, afterwords, if you feel it doesn't work, look to slip in mentions earlier.

katiemac · Aug 15, 2009

Writing "rules" are more like guidelines anyway so if you need to break one for your story to work, do it. If it makes sense for you to mention him in passing in the earlier chapters, go ahead and do that. But you can worry about that in edits.

Like a Fox · Aug 15, 2009

Ruth2 said:
Like A Fox: This is my second full length novel. My first is awaiting revision and it's 125K. I've been trying to think of a novel of comparable length that did the same thing but I'm drawing a blank.

For some reason Pride and Prejudice came into my head. And I thought of Wickham. But thinking about it more, pretty sure he comes in sooner than that. Off the top of my head, I've got nothing. But that's a good thing. Be different

Ruth2 · Aug 15, 2009

He comes in just about at the halfway mark right now and yeah, he needs to be there. I had planned to bring some folks on as "the family back home" but they were to be minor. He's becoming pivotal to the rest of the story. I'm hoping that since it's the beginning of Part II it'll be okay to bend the rule.

I did something earlier with a secondary character-- brought him on late, but I mentioned him fairly early in the story so I'm not having any angst over him.

Thanks y'all!

Woolly · Aug 15, 2009

Is this guy mentioned before? I think if the character exists in the world of the story before you meet him, there's no problem. If he comes out of nowhere, that might be a little irritating unless the whole structure is episodic.

It sounds like this is the family of one of the characters, though, in which case you can make the patriarch an offstage presence early on.

ChristineR · Aug 15, 2009

I'd say we don't have to meet him, but you have to mention him earlier, otherwise it would feel like he's coming in out of nowhere.

This sort of assumes all your scenes are from the MC's point of view. If you're switching POV, then you can always give an intro scene from his POV.

backslashbaby · Aug 16, 2009

It sounds good, imho. As long as the first part is interesting, and as long as you don't drop whatever interesting plot was happening in the first part (for too long). If it adds to the plot from Part I, it sounds perfectly interesting, imho.

As far as mentioning him earlier, that does sound good. But please don't do it in a way where we are waiting in a frustrated state about anything. Nothing too cryptic if it's going to be a long while (use your intuition here - it's hard to explain when it's fun and when it's frustrating

).

BigWords · Aug 16, 2009

I can't see any problem with intoroducing a major character midway through as long as there are good reasons he hasn't shown up earlier. Have you decided what he was doing while the earier action was taking place?

Libbie · Aug 16, 2009

Ruth2 said:
Okay, so I'm 40K into my WIP. It's chugging along nicely, the MCs and their sidekick have ended up in France and the female MC is getting to meet the family for the first time. INcluding the patriarch, who suddenly is becoming very important in this section.

Now I've read we're supposed to get all our main folks on stage asap. 40K isn't early by any measurement and I'm not sure what to do. Do I need him? Yep. Is he important? Yep. He does come in at the beginning of Part II; will that be enough or do i have to do some somersaults in Part I to make it okay?

Thanks y'all for any advice or tomatoes thrown.

I say, add a character whenever it makes sense to add one. I introduced a new character right around the 50,000-word mark in my WIP. She's a minor character, but she plays some important roles in carrying messages and running dirty little errands for the MC.

I also introduced a very important character who will cause the climax of the book at about 90,000 words in a book I'm guessing will be 120,000 when finished. She couldn't be introduced any earlier than that, because she wasn't born until then.

So personally, I say you should introduce them when it makes sense in the story.

ChaosTitan · Aug 16, 2009

I agree with Libbie. There are no hard and fast rules about introducing characters, other than, say, in romance (hero and heroine need to both be on-stage within the first two or three chapters). Introduce a character when you need him or her to make an appearance in order to serve the story. It's never too late, really.

Ruth2 · Aug 16, 2009

Cool! The reason he's not introduced before is because Part I of the book takes place in D.C. and this new character is in France. The guys my MC is with are reluctant to tell her about the family for which reasons become apparent as the story progresses. Part II takes place in France and as soon as they arrive home, the new character is on stage.

He definitely adds to the plot, plus he brings some new twists.

I may be able to add a reference to him in Part I but right now to me anything I'd do like that would seem contrived. We'll see.

Thanks y'all!!

sadron · Aug 16, 2009

I see no problem with it.

It spices the story more.

Ruth2 · Aug 16, 2009

Thanks, sadron!

JennW · Aug 16, 2009

I see nothing wrong with it!

Ruth2 · Aug 16, 2009

Thanks, JennW!

Too late for a new character?

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