: Re: Is it OK to introduce a character to leave it simmering to a later date? One of my secondary characters is going to play an important part, more important than at present, in the story. Is

@Kevin153

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It's fine to introduce characters, but not use them right away. However, you'll have to be really careful with it. The more detailed your description of the character, the more the readers will expect for him/her to have a bigger role in your story. Giving detailed descriptions to characters who don't do anything can peeve your readers in the long-run. They may have been expecting that character to do something significant, and then may be really confused and disappointed when the character doesn't amount to anything by the time they've read the whole book.

Also, be sure to have a good amount of length to your character's first appearance, or people might forget about him after a while. If this is your intention, I suppose it's a good thing, but it will most likely just cause confusion. If readers have forgotten about the character, they will be expecting a description for when he pops up next, and be really puzzled when they can't find any. They'll wonder, "Who the hell is this person now? Where did they come from? Was I supposed to remember them from before?"

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