How much of your character's back story do you know before the story begins?
Do you know everything or just the basics? -- Bobby Nash
There are two opposing ways of thinking about this, as opposite as democrats and republicans are politically -- at least in my experience of meeting and talking with writers. The members of one group tend to make it all up they they go along, reinventing their characters almost willy-nilly with every twist and turn or plot and nuance of story. On the other hand, the members of the other group keep their folders of notes and printouts and family tree diagrams handy near their computer desk or (for the tech-obsessed authors) in a spreadsheet on the cloud so they can't lose the information at home and can have it readily available even when they're not at home.
Many, however -- and I'm certainly one of them -- fall somewhere in the middle. I like to know the basic personality and major life experiences for my core characters, but I tend to fill in the details for other things (like what college he attended, who was her first boyfriend, is he allergic to gluten, where did her tattoo come from, for example) as I'm writing and as the story dictates. It's funny though how often some of those minutia of details can become key plot points in a story or triggers for a new story for a future volume featuring the character in some cases.
A real-life example: When I came up with the Victorian detective for my story "Death with a Glint of Bronze" in Dreams of Steam II: Brass and Bolts (Amazon, B&N). I knew that within the scope of my 20 or so pages, I wouldn't need to dig so far into McKendrick's past to know about the facts and dates of his previous marriage or how long his time as a soldier in India was exactly. But I did need to know all the details of the accident that took one hand, and the childhood malady that left his other hand palsied. Those were the important back story details. Those were the ones on which the story hinged and swung.
I used to do questionnaires about my characters, and I think those kind of details are good to know, and I still recommend them as character exercises for beginning writers. (I have an online tutorial about character development at http://taylorverse.com/tutorial6.html that goes into detail on those kind of exercises.) However, after writing for a nearly 20 years now, the questions that lead to those kind of details have become internalized, and I no longer have to make a conscious effort to fill out questionnaires or apply for jobs as my character. As the characters become real in my head, those specifics become automatic, and sometimes even just held in my subconscious until such a time as they are needed for the story.
A caveat -- the longer the work, the more information I've learned that I need to know upfront about the back story. Why? Because I've found that those are the kind of details that help carry a story beyond the simple plot point A leads to plot point B leads to plot point C, etc. kind of story. Those are the things that take a story (at least for me, you're mileage may vary) from a mere skeleton to a flesh and blood living being.
With me I certainly know everything about my character that is important that drives them as a character and got them to where they are at the point they are at the beginning of the story. Everything else is extra. Note I said extra and not trivial. A key distinction. The extra stuff is material that can be answered later and as Sean mentions can have entire stories spin around them. In fact in the upcoming Aym Geronimo daily online comic strip "The Fearmakers" we discover something we heretofore didn't know about her mentor Prof. Otis D. Delacroix that is at the center of the entire escapade.
ReplyDeleteBasically this goes back to the comment I made to the Rucka piece on writing female characters. Again it's about characters being like real people. I call it 'getting to know the character'. How many people have you ever got to know everything about the first time you meet them. I don't want all the answers myself because if I put too much stuff in stone I'm not letting the character reveal to me organically what is the real answer. And too I miss the chance for other writers to possible serve up those answers for me in a way I may never have thought up on my own as happened with a couple of the stories in the hopefully soon to be finally published Tall Tales book.
I know far more about my characters than I may put into a story as I only put in the story just enough to inform the reader when the reader needs to know it.
ReplyDeleteJohn makes a good point in his reply: how many people do you meet that tells you everything about themselves the first time you meet them. Just doesn't happen. I've known people for ten years or more and still find out new things about them. Why should fictional characters be any different?
Great boys, fellas. And thanks for reading and posting.
ReplyDeleteI like coming up with a full back story before writing, but my characters also develop and change somewhat as I write, as well.
ReplyDeleteHey, Ashley, thanks for commenting. Just curious through which link you found the blog. Want to make sure I'm hitting the right places. Thanks again for dropping by.
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