About Introductions and My Retirement
Post 723:
I’m rather lacking in the social arts. Chiefly, the art of introductions. Most of the time I immediately forget the name of the person I’m telling myself I have to remember. When it comes to introducing two different parties, usually I forget, forcing them to offer awkward handshakes across my shamed prow.
Thank God, my deficiencies aren’t so apparent when I’m introducing characters in my stories. Usually I find a creative way to first expose the reader to a new character—at the very least, a way that makes sense.
There are a thousand ways to first describe a character. The bigger they are to the story, the more you want to do, but keep in mind, there’s a lot more story to do it in. Let the drama and action describe them whenever possible—it feels more natural. It’s also solid to have another character telling the reader about your new character. This way, the reader feels like there’s another layer of perspective. While this might not register with them at the time, my belief is that they apprehend it on a subconscious level.
I bring this up because I can’t read anything without thinking about the nuts and bolts behind storytelling. Another way of saying I’m a big nerdfest.
Today, we’ve got Tender Is the Night by Mr. F. Scott Fitzgerald. He’s got mad skills at describing settings and the look of people, so he goes with it. I find his introduction of the girl Rosemary to be interesting. After spending a few paragraphs describing her with his Fitzgerald flourishes, he simply begins a paragraph saying her name and the thing she’s doing. It’s just a thing he does. It feels a bit blah and perfunctory but hold the phone.
It’s off-putting at first because there’s other pieces on the board, other characters and things going on already. But suddenly Rosemary’s going down to the beach. You take a second and it becomes pretty obvious who he’s refencing, but it strikes me as a bit unorthodox and therefore noteworthy.
A common way to make sure we put a name to the character would be to have her mother call out her name as she goes down to beach. Something like that. You know, so we don’t have to use our brainpans.
I went back three or four times just to make sure he didn’t previously mention her name. I really don’t think he does until this sorta random point.
Upon going back, I realized he’d already done an amazing job introducing us to Rosemary. We just didn’t have her name. This unorthodox approach might also have been employed because she’s a celebrity in the story and he wanted to be matter-of-fact about first saying her name. That last one is pure speculation, but it makes sense to me as a writer.
Play around with your introductions. There’s a ton of cool ways to do it. The main thing is to make it seem natural. Force is for the weak and the lazy.
As far as social settings, just remember them frigging names. Don’t be like me and nod like an idiot. I often think back on when I met someone and wonder what I was thinking about that distracted me from learning and filing away their name… that’s right, I’m such a sad case that I can’t even remember the things that cause me to forget things.
I’m leaving now. I have to read through this pamphlet for the Shady Acres Retirement Home.
Cheers and see you after.
