Final answer:
Authors must engage in careful observation before describing settings or characters, crucial for characterization and creating vivid narratives. Option b.
Step-by-step explanation:
Before an author can describe the setting or a character, she must do some very careful observation. The correct answer is b) Observation. An author's approach to characterization and the establishment of setting involves meticulous observation and gathering of details that bring the narrative to life. This process is crucial for developing a vivid and believable world within the story.
For setting, authors often need to mark references to the setting in their story, starting with the place and time of the action, and then focusing on recurrent details and objects. When it comes to characters, an author needs to think through questions to gain a better understanding of each character.
This includes integrating aspects picked up from memory, chance meetings, and various life experiences, which inform the creation of characters that readers can vividly imagine as real people.
Likewise, a careful analysis of the setting includes making an outline to discuss what aspects of the setting are crucial and to focus on key passages in the story that help bring the story to life.
These considerations are part of the prewriting stage, which may also include the development of hypotheses about character relationships and plot directions that will later be analyzed through objective reading for a deeper understanding of the narrative.
So Option b.