How do you come up with backstories?
It depends on what I'm writing. If it comes to novels I create the world first. I figure out how it's run, how the people live and so on. Once I have that all thought out then I come up with a character. I think of their back story for them that's realistic in their world, as well as for their personality, flaws, thoughts, culture, race, class and so on. After that I write the story according to what I know about them to make sure that the readers pick up bits and pieces of them and be able to form their own opinion of the character. It's like a puzzle. The character is a mystery and I let the readers to learn more about the character the further they read.
But sometimes I just write the story and later on I think up the backstory and explain it as necessary. And then in editing I remove or add things so that it'll come all together nicely.
Do you have dark, exciting, suspenseful, or plain backstories?
I have varying backstories, from simple and normal to very dark and depraved. It mostly depends on the character and the story.
Is it easy for you to come up with these ideas?
Not really, plot comes to me first, the characters second, and then the characters personalities and appearances along with their backstories.
What inspires you to have this kind of backstory? Why?
It's just whatever feels natural for that character and whatever works well with the plot.
What is your favorite character backstory that you've written and why?
I love my character, Jaklyn. She's a cool character but also mysterious. So her backstory isn't reveal in the story just yet because she keeps to herself and rather not let it be known. But as the story goes on, little bits and pieces are hinted at about her life/past and it leaves the readers and the other characters in the story curious and wanting to know more. At the same time her background is connected to the plot so it was important that I developed her backstory very well but also not reveal everything so quickly.
It's very important to keep her mysterious because the characters and the readers get to learn about her and with each piece of information revealed they start to understand her better. She'll feel more human, making it easier to connect her to and things start to make sense about her personality, why she's capable of doing the things she does and so on. She's pretty much the first character in any story that I wrote, that I like a lot and have truly developed her so well.
 DamnBlackHeart · Tue Mar 01, 2011 @ 12:08am · 0 Comments |
