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Q&A How should I introduce multiple characters without it being repetitive?

In my story, I have 8 characters I really want to focus on, which is already a pretty large cast to begin with. At the beginning of the book, something important happens to each of the 8 that kicks...

2 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Eucaa‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T07:46:32Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/32801
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Eucaa‭ · 2019-12-08T07:46:32Z (almost 5 years ago)
In my story, I have 8 characters I really want to focus on, which is already a pretty large cast to begin with. At the beginning of the book, something important happens to each of the 8 that kicks off the main conflict of the story. The introductions of these characters can’t be skipped, and each incident is different, so multiple inciting events can’t be grouped into 1 chapter. However, I feel like slamming down 8 consecutive chapters of introduction after introduction at the very start of the story would get awfully repetitive, and 8 inciting events one after another would probably be very overwhelming to read about. How would I fix this?

If possible, I’d like to avoid the “expositional flashback” trope too.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-01-25T23:06:44Z (almost 7 years ago)
Original score: 15