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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24206
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

We can't tell you how to write your story, but this is a kind of question that comes up from time to time, the sort that asks: "What is the _correct_ way to do this thing?" Making a rule for yourself about where to describe a thing means that you're making your fiction formulaic and consistent. Good prose has life to it, it's not a list of people, places, events, and descriptions.

Descriptions are a writing technique like any other. They can set the stage and ground the reader, sometimes by conveying atmospheric information and sometimes by giving detail important to the plot. While the plot in this story demands some amount of description, please take care not to over-use it or use it in a predictable way.

From your question, it sounds like you're going to be in this character's head more than a little, so it's important to ask yourself how she would view the world. She'd live in fear of those who could return her to slavery, of course, and she'd search for these distinctive uniforms. But the reader can find out why this is the case anytime in the story. You do _not_ need to set up cause and effect like ducks in a row in a story, you just need to keep the reader satisfied and interested.

Original score: 2