[ScoutFinch190]

Hey everyone!

I was wondering if anyone had any tips on introducing sort of off-the-wall characters that haven’t been well-foreshadowed.

Here’s my situation:

The setting is a fantasy world that uses portals for space travel by the traveler briefly going through a dimension that is similar to the spiritual realm. People are trying to experiment with them to turn them into a power source and create disposable, mechanized, soldiers for a war.

In the process of their experimentation, a wrongfully imprisoned teenager (Felix) is used as a test subject. In the experiment, his body is left outside the portal in a coma, but his soul remains inside the other dimension. As time goes on with him being trapped in the other dimension, he soon finds that he can appear in the regular dimension, very like a ghost, but even though he finds his body, he’s unable to return to the regular world completely, which would enable his soul to reunite with his old body.

This character meets my MC, Jake.

At the time, Jake is imprisoned in a place where they’re doing experiments on convicts, he is reeling from grief and remorse (long story) and he and Felix meet. Together, they escape the prison, and go on an adventure together.

The place where I’m having trouble is introducing Felix. In the first part of my story, there’s vague hinting at the possibility of a ghost like Felix, but his case is highly unique.

(The hinting involves mention of the between dimension, and how people sometimes get trapped there and never seen again, along with the mentioning that ghosts are a well-known superstition, and there is a flickering light, but I don’t know what to do with it.)

Do you guys have any tips for introducing Felix? It’s such a crazy introduction, but I really want him in the story as he is, and I want that introduction to feel natural, but to still be surprising without feeling ridiculous. Does anyone have any advice? Thank you!

We crazy people are the normal ones.

[Crystal]

I don’t feel like the best person to give advice, but it sounds to me like you probably have enough foreshadowing. You have Jake somewhere where experiments on done on convicts, while Felix is a convict who had experiments done on him. You have the little bits of hinting, etc. Also, until you get close to the climax, it’s pretty expected for new characters to appear. Since you say once they escape the prison, they go on an adventure together, it sounds like they meet in the first half or so at least. I’d say you have enough set up already to just introduce him however you want. If beta readers further down the line have issues, then you can look it over again.

[Mr.Trip Williams]

A few ideas for you….

– spooked guards and rumors spread about seeing things in the night while your mc overhears

– bring the ghost in stages… perhaps your ghost is just figuring out how to interact, so that’s where the stages come in; for example, perhaps at first your mc gets flashes of cold randomly. of course the mc would think nothing of it, then the cold flashes pair with lights flickering. Odd, but still the mc would just rationalize it away. Then perhaps small (or loud) noises occur (paired with the lights or not at all). Don’t know what kind of cell your mc is in, but perhaps raps on concrete or sounds like the bars are being rattled or hit, or a scraping sound. Then perhaps he starts seeing things, like blurred light (like a mist or fog) or perhaps he sees things in the corner of his eye but then when he looks it’s gone. then he sees a figure standing over him when he wakes up, but then when he bolts upright, it’s gone. then later, it manifests completely and either then or later begins to figure out how to speak to your mc.

Of course, that is a long lead in. You can cut out whole stages out as fits your needs or don’t do any stages and just use whatever you find useful…. or hopefully, even if you don’t use any of this, hopefully it sparks your imagination to fill in whatever you need for your story. =)

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried. ~ G.K.C.

[ScoutFinch190]

@dacelo

@jared-williams

 

Thank you both so much! This helps a lot! I love your exposition ideas!

We crazy people are the normal ones.

[Author]

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