This is K.M. Wyland and you are listening to the 497th episode of the Helping Writers Become Authors

Podcast.

Something I've been particularly excited about working on lately is a deep dive into character and story archetypes. I'm spending a lot of writing time on this

right now since I'm finding it particularly pertinent as I continue outlining the sequels

in my portal fantasy trilogy. It's really fun to explore character

acts that go beyond the known hero's journey. I still have more work and research to do on this, but I'm excited to hopefully share with you my new pet writing passion in future posts and podcasts later this year.

And with any luck, it will help me figure out where I'm going with these

sequels. Best thing about writing is there's always something new to learn. And now I hope you enjoy this week's podcast, six tips for introducing

characters. Most of the time I hate real life introductions.

For one thing, I almost always forget the person's name

in the rush of shaking hands, smiling,

and saying something charmingly banal.

And then there's the small talk important but

often tedious, squirm. But that's most of the time because occasionally I run

into one of those special people who is just brilliant at introductions.

You know the ones.

Just like a good hook in a story, these people immediately grab your attention.

You go from being interested in getting to the point

to being interested in them. That right there is the main secret in

introducing characters in your story, especially in the first chapter when you're using these

characters to hook readers into sticking around past the small talk.

Successfully introducing characters in a way that highlights all their fantastic potential

...