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Character Background; Why it Matters

Addison

Auror
Today during a very boring twenty minutes babysitting the prop shop my co-worker spotted me writing out character back stories. The conversation went something like this:
"Hey, what'cha doin'?" He asked
"Fleshing out my characters' back grounds."
"Huh?"
"Writing about their past, trying to figure out where they came from."
"Oh. Why? Is your book a thriller mystery where each of them is connected, like Clue or Saw?"
".....No."
"Oh....then why?"

Here's my answer, because it's important. You don't have to write the background in the story. We didn't need to know how Hermione Granger's parents met or how they took it when she started exhibiting magic. We didn't need to know Hannibal Lecter's childhood so see why he turned out how he did. But the author did know. And that is why it's important. Fleshing out the background of your character will give them more dimensions, they will appear real (or more real) in your head. And the more you know about the character the better you can describe him or her in the story.
 

Asterisk

Troubadour
Here's my answer, because it's important. You don't have to write the background in the story. We didn't need to know how Hermione Granger's parents met or how they took it when she started exhibiting magic. We didn't need to know Hannibal Lecter's childhood so see why he turned out how he did. But the author did know. And that is why it's important. Fleshing out the background of your character will give them more dimensions, they will appear real (or more real) in your head. And the more you know about the character the better you can describe him or her in the story.

Perfectly said!
 

GeekDavid

Auror
Reading, I can usually spot the characters for whom the author has done detailed backgrounds and those he hasn't.

Those with backgrounds are three-dimensional. Those without are two-dimensional.
 
I'll approach this from the opposite direction. I have a history of being fumbling and tentative when trying to deal with religious characters. Price in Kids These Days believes in God, but I didn't put much thought into exactly what she believed, mostly bringing it up in jokes. The result was that when her beliefs actually became important to the plot, it felt more jarring than it had to be--here were these ideas that had formerly not been set up much, and now I was trying to wring emotion out of them. I think if I'd thought more in advance about exactly how and why she was religious, it would have come out better.
 

Addison

Auror
The effort and time you put into each character depends on their importance to the story. If a character's purpose is to stand at the gate and ring the warning bell when he sees the hero(s) trying to sneak in then you don't need to go into their past. Heck you might not have to name them. It's up to you, your story, and how you see each character affecting it.
 

BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
I'm not saying that it's not important or useful to have detailed backgrounds for your characters, but I will say that the attitudes expressed in this thread seem, to me anyway, to indicate the perspective of outliners. Discovery writers typically use a different creative process.

Instead of sitting down and making character sheets, discovery writers tend to develop characters as the story unfolds.

For an outliner, the important issue is that they have an understanding of the character so they can portray the character accurately. For a discovery writer, the important thing is that they understand how they have portrayed the character so that they keep the portrayal accurate.
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
When I started out my current WIP I sat down and wrote a summery of Enar's (my MC) back story. I included the main important events and tried to include a little about his personality.
The actual events worked out fine, they're just facts - actually things that actually happened. - The personality description I might as well have skipped for all the good it's done me.
It's not until now, well into the story, that I have a good feel for what kind of a guy he actually is. My feeling is that I would have had to put in a disproportionate amount of effort into the background story in order to reach this level of familiarity with my character from the start.
In a way, it's perhaps fortunate that I'll be rewriting most of the first parts of the book, that way the reader should get a better feel for the character sooner, I have a better idea of the character.

What I'm thinking at the moment is that for my next story I will do the characters after I do the outline of the story. That way I'll know what the main important events are. I'll then write out those events as short stories, to see how my character handle them and how they react in those situations. That way I will (in theory), have a better feel for my next MC once I start the story. It will also help me get a feel for those important events and help me discover potential issues with them.

Does this make sense or does it seem overly ambitious?
 
I'm not saying that it's not important or useful to have detailed backgrounds for your characters, but I will say that the attitudes expressed in this thread seem, to me anyway, to indicate the perspective of outliners. Discovery writers typically use a different creative process.

Instead of sitting down and making character sheets, discovery writers tend to develop characters as the story unfolds.

For an outliner, the important issue is that they have an understanding of the character so they can portray the character accurately. For a discovery writer, the important thing is that they understand how they have portrayed the character so that they keep the portrayal accurate.

What you describe is the best way I currently have to write characters, since the ideas I come up with while writing a character's behavior in context tend to be fresher and more unique than the ideas I come up with just trying to think out a character I haven't written. However, it may take me three scenes to realize "Oh, giving this character trait X would make an interesting contrast!", after which I need to go back and rewrite the two previous scenes in which she had trait Y. If a writer can figure out that the character should have trait Y before writing all those scenes, that's at least quicker, if not necessarily better.

What I'm thinking at the moment is that for my next story I will do the characters after I do the outline of the story. That way I'll know what the main important events are. I'll then write out those events as short stories, to see how my character handle them and how they react in those situations. That way I will (in theory), have a better feel for my next MC once I start the story. It will also help me get a feel for those important events and help me discover potential issues with them.

It's workable, but do be warned that you may have to re-outline. For instance, if your plot requires your characters to obey an authority figure, and one of your characters turns out to have little respect for authority, the plot must necessarily go somewhere other than where you intended.
 

BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
What you describe is the best way I currently have to write characters, since the ideas I come up with while writing a character's behavior in context tend to be fresher and more unique than the ideas I come up with just trying to think out a character I haven't written. However, it may take me three scenes to realize "Oh, giving this character trait X would make an interesting contrast!", after which I need to go back and rewrite the two previous scenes in which she had trait Y. If a writer can figure out that the character should have trait Y before writing all those scenes, that's at least quicker, if not necessarily better.

I think there are advantages to both approaches. Some writers find working from an outline stifling. Others have a hard time focusing without one.

It's more of a what works best for you kinda thing. Don't let anyone tell you that you have to outline first or that outlining doesn't work. You have to discover what works best for you.
 

Guy

Inkling
Instead of sitting down and making character sheets, discovery writers tend to develop characters as the story unfolds.

For an outliner, the important issue is that they have an understanding of the character so they can portray the character accurately. For a discovery writer, the important thing is that they understand how they have portrayed the character so that they keep the portrayal accurate.
I'm not one for outlines. Usually the character just sort of pops up in my mind, but in the course of writing the story I need to know why the characters do what they do, how they got to where they are, what motivates them, etc. Which I think is what you're saying.
 
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