Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39838
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39838
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The easiest solution is to **split up the introduction**. If it's possible at all, have the MC share a scene with one or two characters, then with two or three others, and so on until you've introduced them all. It can also be helpful to mention a character not present in the scene, before he is properly introduced. Then, when we meet the character, we already know something about them, so it's easier to remember this character as distinct from the others. For example, in _Daughter of the Forest_, an adaptation of _The Wild Swans_, Juliet Marillier introduces the MC's six brothers a few at a time, in scenes that accentuate their most prominent character traits. This way, the readers are not confused between them in the story that follows.

If it is absolutely necessary to introduce all seven characters at once, I would highly recommend you **give each of them some prominent trait** , and reiterate it, along with the character's name, each time the character acts in the first few scenes - until the readers learn to recognise them. If one of the characters is old, have him continually stroke his white beard. If one has large blue eyes, have her bat them, open them wide, etc. If one has a title, e.g. 'Admiral', use that. Make each character as different as possible from the others, give each some trademark, whether it's appearance, or a way of speaking, or something else. (That's not necessarily a bad idea even if you're not introducing everyone at the same time. J.K. Rowling is notorious for giving each character a trademark appearance. Red hair - Weasley. Bushy hair - Hermione. Greasy black hair - Snape.)

A third solution is to **leave the reader deliberately confused**. Remember the famous beginning of _The Hobbit_, where 13 dwarves all appear at Bilbo's doorstep?

> Bilbo rushed along the passage, very angry, and altogether bewildered and bewuthered - this was the most awkward Wednesday he ever remembered. (J.R.R. Tolkien, _The Hobbit_, chapter 1 - An Unexpected Party)

By the end of that chapter, most readers would find themselves slightly "bewildered and bewuthered", just like Bilbo. Thorin is immediately set apart by the narration as the leader, but the other dwarves - it is safe to say that they are a jumble of names, whom the readers would get to know better as the story progresses. Since the reader is in the same situation as the MC, the effect helps immersion.

Original score: 4