what's the best way to make a character variable?

I tried this in my script:

local player = game.Players.LocalPlayer

local character = player.Character

if character then 
    print("character added")
end

and before that I tried:

local player = game.Players.LocalPlayer

player.CharacterAdded:Connect(function(character)
    print("character added")
end)

but it both didn't print it out

both scripts were inside of a local script

the local script is inside of a part that is in replicated storage and the part is then cloned and moved to workspace after some time