How late is too late to meet someone new?

[Beanie_Zed]

Or, when in a story should you *stop* introducing characters?

I want to say that the general storytelling convention is that all characters should be introduced before about the halfway part. Anyone after that should be cut, or combined with another character who appears earlier in the narrative. My personal rule is to not name new names after Act 2 (or Act 3 if I'm doing a five-act structure).

So, earlier today I was going through Act 3 on my current manuscript and found two new characters. Naturally. Ugh.

One guy is definitely gonna get cut. He's just hanging out, giving flavor to the scene. I can reassign his dialogue to a more important character and save his name for a different story. The other guy, though, I sort of need later in the chapter to do an Important Plot Thing for my MC. It would be a bit of stretch to give his role to someone else. Luckily, I have spots earlier on where I think I can slip him in. And I *think* I have everyone at least *mentioned* by now.

Anyway, over to you guys. Anyone else got latecomers to the party? If so, how do you deal with them?

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Hmm, tricky question, with a simple answer: it depends. Characters can appear when they need to appear, probably with some arcane ratio of character importance to how far their introduction may be delayed, LOL. A minor character could show up late to the party, the hero... not so much. LOL. I’ve got a bit player who shows up in chapter 40 of 42, but it’s natural that he arrives... refugees and family are coming from everywhere, seeing nobody new would feel awkward to me.

 

[pmmg]

Heheh, trying to apply science to art...

There is no solid answer for this other than, give the story what it needs, and if that is a last minute character, than I suppose its a last minute character. I do think, however, that sometime before you start having the big confrontation and the wrap up, one should be past the point of introducing new characters. I am sure there are many stories where character joined late and it worked out okay. Biggs, Porkins, Wedge and Red Leader all came in kind of late for Star Wars and that worked out okay. Wedge went on to be a pretty major character. So it happens.

 

[CupofJoe]

Characters turn up when they turn up. I can see the logic of narrowing the focus of a story as you close in on the climax.
Following on from Demesnedenoir, if your MC turn up 85% of the way through the book, then are we telling the story in the best way?
The Big Bad is a bit different, they may only appear as part of the climax, maybe even then not at all on the page... but more of a gravity well of other people's actions.
But when we're talking new characters, when is new, new? If we're talking Biggs, in the Star Wars novelisation [back when it was just Star Wars] he appears as a character fairly early on, even in the film, he gets a name check...

 

[Yora]

A minor character could show up late to the party, the hero... not so much.

Also my first thought. The more important a character becomes, the more buildup is required, at least later in the story. In earlier parts you can have characters make a big dynamic entrance, but that's while the overall situation os being eatablished. In the later parts we're already working on the resolution and you can't really make significant changes to the main cast that affect their respective capabilities.
I think it's important for the audience to feel that a character with a major role in the end parts doesn't come out of nowhere. The character needs to be established early and stay in the picture, or at least be heavily and frequently foreshadowed.

 

[K.S. Crooks]

One guy is definitely gonna get cut. He's just hanging out, giving flavor to the scene.

The "flavor" is the reason something is enjoyable. When you can add a new character all depends on the context of the story and what the character adds. Obviously the more the character has to do the earlier they need to arrive. Sometimes a character is mentioned by name early in a story, however they don't appear until much later. If you want to introduce the character and you feel it's too late perhaps there's more to your story.

 

[FifthView]

"meet someone new"

"introducing characters"

One of these is in the title, the other in the opening post. I think these are two different things.

For me, "meet" means the character appears on the the page, as an acting agent whose actions are being shown as happening in the present. Even if it's a flashback, we are there in the flashback, so we are "present" in the past, heh. I don't know, I'm having trouble describing what I mean. But the contrast with "introducing" will make things clearer I hope. You can introduce the character without having the character actually appear on the page. This is Voldemort who is being described, alluded to, etc., before he ever makes an appearance on the page. He's still being introduced to the reader, but at some distance; the reader doesn't meet him until he appears on the page and interacts directly with other characters and whatever events are transpiring.

So....I think you can introduce characters long before readers meet those characters, heh.

The manner of that introduction may depend on many factors and can be rather vague, mysterious, or through mere implication of his existence. Basically, you are foreshadowing the moment the reader actually meets the character much later in the book.

The big problem is what happens when you fail to introduce/foreshadow that meeting until the last two or three chapters -- and that character has a significant impact on the whole story. As a general rule, I'd say don't do that.

So...for the example you gave, I'd suggest that if you don't want that character to be an active agent whose actions are shown directly in the first part of the book, but he's very important to the story as a whole, maybe you can introduce him with some interesting foreshadowing early in the book and keep the official "meeting" until later. Other characters talk about him, read book entries about him, hear rumors about him, etc. That might be perfectly fine.

*Edit: I also think that the introduction/foreshadowing doesn't have to be of the specific character the readers will meet later, but may be foreshadowing that some character might be lurking there on the fringes of present activity. An example would be having a foreign nation outside the nation that is your primary setting, and throughout most of the story small tidbits of info about mysterious activity originating from that foreign nation keep popping up. As you progress, these rumors/tidbits become somewhat more urgent, even if still it's a dribble, until some point when the other characters start wondering what the heck is going on and begin to wonder who is doing these things. Then at some point they meet the brain behind those activities.

 

[Chessie2]

You want to have everything new in *before* you get to the 3/4 of the story when things begin to spiral towards a wrap-up. Some say it should be by mid-point. Just do what feels right for the story. I personally wouldn't introduce anyone or anything new in after the 3/4 mark because by then readers are looking to have things come to a close.

 

[Beanie_Zed]

"meet someone new"

"introducing characters"

One of these is in the title, the other in the opening post. I think these are two different things.

I... I haven't even cognized of a difference between the two, even though I do this exact thing my WIP: The story spends the first two chapters with MC1. MC2 and another Very Important Character are introduced in this time, but the reader doesn't actually meet them until chapters 3 and 4, respectively, and the two MC2 don't meet each other until chapter 5.

I'm a fan of this technique and definitely use it in a few other areas in this WIP. As you mentioned, FifthView, it's also a nice way to not just foreshadow but to give a hint to the reader that there's a larger world.

Side note to clarify my initial post: I definitely mean minor characters. Those secondary, and tertiary folk that get names but not viewpoints.

*Editing to clarify my side note, because someone didn't think before she posted: I definitely agree with all of you that the reader absolutely needs to meet the MC as soon as possible. But when I wrote the post yesterday, I had in mind a friend who is guilty of doing this in his manuscript (but it's his first).

The two late-comers in my WIP are 100% randos, however.

 

[Gurkhal]

Also my first thought. The more important a character becomes, the more buildup is required, at least later in the story. In earlier parts you can have characters make a big dynamic entrance, but that's while the overall situation os being eatablished. In the later parts we're already working on the resolution and you can't really make significant changes to the main cast that affect their respective capabilities.
I think it's important for the audience to feel that a character with a major role in the end parts doesn't come out of nowhere. The character needs to be established early and stay in the picture, or at least be heavily and frequently foreshadowed.

Pretty much what I think as well.

You can add a new character in the last scene if that character adds something to that scene that established characters wouldn't be able to bring.

But then again characters that have been built up are likely going to be make a larger impact on the reader than recently introduced characters. Which is naturally something to keep in mind. So its all depends on what the character is there to do.

 

[Chessie2]

Pretty much what I think as well.

You can add a new character in the last scene if that character adds something to that scene that established characters wouldn't be able to bring.

But then again characters that have been built up are likely going to be make a larger impact on the reader than recently introduced characters. Which is naturally something to keep in mind. So its all depends on what the character is there to do.

But if you introduce a new character in the last chapter then the reader has no time to develop an understanding or attachment to that character. Am I understanding you correctly? If so, this isn't a wise idea imo. It's a sloppy approach to characterization, conflict, and tension. New characters shouldn't be added in just because you need more oomph! in your story; they should be added in because they are a vital part of the plot and story, and without them the hero(es) and plot wouldn't grow. Throwing random characters in at the last minute just because speaks to a need for growth in the storytelling area. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Gurkhal]

But if you introduce a new character in the last chapter then the reader has no time to develop an understanding or attachment to that character. Am I understanding you correctly? If so, this isn't a wise idea imo. It's a sloppy approach to characterization, conflict, and tension. New characters shouldn't be added in just because you need more oomph! in your story; they should be added in because they are a vital part of the plot and story, and without them the hero(es) and plot wouldn't grow. Throwing random characters in at the last minute just because speaks to a need for growth in the storytelling area. Just my 2 cents.

I don't agree with you. Not that I think that what you say may be wrong, but that I don't recognize my own argument in what you write.

To start with I feel that there could be no hard fast rules for when to introduce a new character in a story. A short story can obviously handle less characters than a twelve volyme series but to say that "at this point, no new characters" would be needlessly limiting if its implemented regardless of the actual length of the story. A character introduced in the later half of a twelve volyme series will naturally have ample time to develop and grow, while it will be less possible to make such a thing in a short story.

Secondly, I do not argue that you should throw in characters for no or little purpose. Only that if a character can have a purpose then it can be added, even if late in the story. I didn't say or mean to my own knowledge that you should throw in characters just for the hell of it.

Thirdly, the reason I mentioned that more established characters will have more impact is because I recognize it as such, and don't see the exclusivity between developing some characters but also introducing new characters as the story goes on.

 

[skip.knox]

When we talk theory, we inevitably wind up in this place: it cannot be done, it can always be done, it can never be done, it can be done but only if done right, you didn't understand my point.

Beanie_Zed, the only useful answer you're going to get is if you ask, does it work in this specific story? I believe the answer is going to hang on the matter of minor. If the story cannot work without Character X, then the later X is introduced, the more problematic things become.

The easy examples are from other genres. Consider a mystery story. If you bring in the true murderer two pages from the end, the reader is going to cry foul, and rightly so. In romance, if the love triangle turns into a quadrangle in the final chapter, readers will be outraged. They will go looking for the biggest room they can find, just so they can throw the book across it. It's more difficult to pinpoint the Moment of Rage in a fantasy story, but it surely exists. When in doubt, consult first your own heart, then consult your beta readers.

If the story works without Character X, then you can probably introduce them anywhere.

 

[Helen]

Or, when in a story should you *stop* introducing characters?

Technically, I don't think it's ever too late. Depends what the character's role is. You can feasibly introduce a character in the final conflict.

It's down to arc. If you want to arc a character, it kinda follows that the more steps you do it in, the earlier the introduction.