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Maybe it should be a sticky?
I haven't found this question in the thread yet, so--
It's recommended to have all the major characters on deck by p.100 (I'm guessing that's in SMF, double-spaced and all), and Logical Chess says develop the pieces before the pawns. I can see the sense of this.
But what if the necessary action of the story means that a character who will prove to be important doesn't appear until the second half or last third of the book? For instance, if characters are travelling to the place where they'll meet him/her, or she/he arrives with a group that's in transit for the first part of the book?
One solution, I guess, is to have that character-in-waiting be thought of or remembered by the onstage characters prior to appearance. That way s/he is present in the reader's mind at least.
But what if that character is previously unknown to the others? Is it necessary to write a second thread for him/her until they meet?
I know that no rules are absolute, but usually I'd prefer to bend or circumvent them than break them.
-Barbara
I haven't found this question in the thread yet, so--
It's recommended to have all the major characters on deck by p.100 (I'm guessing that's in SMF, double-spaced and all), and Logical Chess says develop the pieces before the pawns. I can see the sense of this.
But what if the necessary action of the story means that a character who will prove to be important doesn't appear until the second half or last third of the book? For instance, if characters are travelling to the place where they'll meet him/her, or she/he arrives with a group that's in transit for the first part of the book?
One solution, I guess, is to have that character-in-waiting be thought of or remembered by the onstage characters prior to appearance. That way s/he is present in the reader's mind at least.
But what if that character is previously unknown to the others? Is it necessary to write a second thread for him/her until they meet?
I know that no rules are absolute, but usually I'd prefer to bend or circumvent them than break them.
-Barbara