Literature Quotes:
"I dream of you, to wake: would that I might Dream of you and not wake but slumber on; Nor find with dreams the dear companion gone, As, Summer ended, Summer birds take flight."	Monna Innominata by Christina Rossetti
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Once you have the Timeline done it is easier to do back-stories. Back-stories are never fully integrated to your story, however they are essential in order for you to be able to see and show your character as a live person. The personal history you will write will give you the needed insight into what makes your character tick. Events and decisions shape our lives and as made us who we are; it's the same for your characters. What shapes them is what happened to them and how they dealt with it - this is what you want to write about in the back-story (how and why they are who they are in the current time of your story).

If you are writing realistic stories (even in fantasies characters must be based on real human traits if you want them to attract the reader's sympathies), one way to write your back-story is to think about the "back-story" of your friends or family. Analyze their lives and the events that made them who they are. Of course if you don't want your friends to recognize themselves when they read your story I suggest mix up all their histories into one (a little from column A and a little from B).

I have previously written a "How to create a character" post that you can also refer to in order to begin writing your character's back-story. But it is just a beginning; those questions will not be enough for they are elementary or surface questions. In your back-stories you will want delves deeper into the character's psyche and find out why they are who they are today.

Here's a list of questions that will help you create a back-story for your characters

1. What type of childhood did they have that would affect them now?
2. What about their early teenage years that would affect them now?
3. Who are their parents and what type of affect does that have on their personality and life?
4. What town, city, state, county, and country did they grow up in and what type of affect does that have on their personality and life?
5. What type of things or characteristics makes your character unique and has played a part in their personality?
6. Do they have flaws in their personality or imperfections in their eyes even if not in someone else's eyes, if so why do they believe that (is there an event that can explain why)?
7. Do they have flaws in their personal body or imperfections and how has this affected their personality?
8. What type of relationship do they have with their family and why?
9. What type of moral beliefs do they have and how has this affected their personality?
10. What makes them likeable?
11. What makes them dislikeable?
12. What things in their life are important to them and why?
13. Does their career define who they are or does their life define their career?

Find out all you can about your characters and write their stories down. Back-stories give your characters life. Your characters come to the page with their own history. Listen carefully, hear what they tell you and see with your mind's eye what they are showing you. Write everything down. Refer to the Timeline if you get stuck. Include all the details you can in the back-story. Write until you feel everything has been told to you. And remember to do a back-story for each one of the important characters in your story (basically, write a back-story for each character you wrote a timeline).

Labels: writing