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Characterization on the Go: Establishing Likable Characters Quickly
There’s a lot of things that draw readers into a story: a swan dive into a good plot, a compelling author’s voice, whether or not Tom Hanks is starring in it.
But one thing you can do in order to get readers to care about the plot and setting and all the other details is to have likable characters right off the bat. The readers have to care about the people in your story before they care about anything else in it.
So, how do you quickly characterize your protagonists without bogging your reader down with too many “establishing shots”? Here’s an example of quick characterization from my own short story “Breadcrumbs” about a group of EMT workers on the job one night.
This an example of quick characterization that does several things to endear them to the readers. Let’s go over how to quickly get readers to be invested in your characters.
- Leave some gaps
This is true for almost all characterizations. Writing is just as much about what you don’t say as it is about what you do. For instance, in the above example I don’t tell you when Mary got divorced or why or tell…
