Developing a Fictional Character
Have you ever watched a person running for a bus that is pulling away? Do you watch the story unfold? What happens if the bus doesn’t stop? Will the runner give up and slump, sadly watching the bus pull away? Could they curse and throw their briefcase? Will they turn to the people on the sidewalk, and shout “Can you believe that driver?”
My story brain goes further and my mind immediately begins asking questions. Why was he late? What will happen if he doesn’t arrive at his destination on time? Is he always late, or is this out of character for him?
Character Development
When I began developing the idea for The Elemental Artist Series, I had a pretty good idea of what kind of character I wanted to lead the story, but I didn’t know much about him. Determined to ensure I could transfer his voice from my head to the page, I researched the art of character development. However, I found the work required by common character development advice a barrier.
I’ve seen writers spend hours and thousands of words to flesh out their characters. They fill out complicated quizzes with dozens to hundreds of questions. They interview their characters, they dress up as their characters, they can and do talk to anyone who will listen about how amazing their characters are. “Backstory!” they cry. “You must know your character’s backstory!”
Because I was unconvinced that the character quizzes and questionnaires were useful to me, I began to research why backstory was important.
Character Backstory
In The Secrets of Story by Matt Bird, Bird disagrees that a character’s backstory is important.
“Many writers assume a hero will be interesting because of an interesting backstory, but the audience doesn’t actually care much about a hero’s backstory. Heroes are interesting because of their actions and attitudes as the story progresses, not because of what happened in the past.”
Bird goes on to warn writers against delving into your protagonist’s backstory because a writer may feel compelled to reveal the backstory and worse, substitute the backstory for the front story.
This viewpoint is echoed in The Writer’s Little Helper by James V. Smith, JR., where Smith writes,
“I don’t recommend you write entire biographies of each person in your novel before you begin the story. That’s because I’m lazy. I’d rather write story than genealogy. Also, I tend to fall in love with my own research and might try to include an entire biography in my story—material that doesn’t advance the plot.”
So if backstory takes time and effort to develop and the readers don’t care, why should a writer investigate their character’s backstory?
Why Understanding Character Backstory is Important
In Breathing Life Into Your Characters by Rachel Ballon, Ph.D., Ballon says
“When you begin your story, your characters should already have inner conflicts to resolve and problems to solve.”
To create a character that feels as complex and real as a living person, things must have happened to them before the story begins. Why our characters act the way they do depends on what happened to them before our story begins.
In Wired For Story, Lisa Cron suggests a focused approach to backstory. Cron argues the purpose of developing your character’s backstory is
“…to pinpoint two things: the event in his past that knocked his worldview of alignment, triggering the internal issue that keeps him from achieving his goal; and the inception of his desire for the goal itself.”
My mind’s muscle flexed when I read this. The purpose of backstory is to understand your character’s motivation. Why is my character saying or doing these things in my novel? What happened in his past to make him react like this? Was this decision inevitable based on his history?
Instead of worrying whether he preferred rice or pasta, dogs or cats, and yellow or blue, I focused on my story. I created a simple history for the character, then used my character’s reactions to the events in the story to understand the details of what had occurred in the past.
Life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forward. – Soren Kierkegaard
Suddenly, I understood why my character reacted to certain events and how some of the decisions he would make in the future were tied to his backstory. Even better, I was able to translate the essence of the character to the page.
How to Use a Character’s Backstory
Backstory can be told via dialogue, narration, flashbacks, or inner dialogue. Ballon argues that backstory creates intimacy with a reader.
“As you slowly reveal information about your character’s past, your audience will grow to care about and identify with that character.”
However, adding material to your story that doesn’t move the plot forward is unlikely to charm your readers. Thus, we must strive to limit backstory to the details necessary to build reader intimacy while moving the plot forward.
A Garland of Cedar and Snow
After sending the latest draft of Oil and Dust to my editor, I wrote a short story about my character titled A Garland of Cedar and Snow. This exercise was two-fold; one, I made it a goal to write four short stories this year. Two, I wanted to make sure I’d pinpointed the triggering event. The moment my character’s need for answers crystalized.
Funnily, after the story had fallen out of my brain and onto the page, I found two places in the novel where I’d referred to this event, even though I hadn’t consciously recognized it when I wrote the novel. If you’d like to read it, I’m linking it here for free, or it will be available for purchase on eBook retailers after this weekend.
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What would you paint if you could change the physical world with your art?
Seventeen-year-old art student Matthew Sugiyama has his heart set on winning the coveted position of Head Boy, but so have the other thirteenth-grade boys in the abbey. Winning the spot will secure his future after graduation, but is his art magic strong enough to win?
Have you explored your character’s backstory? How do you use it?
Header Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash