1Owltherian
Writing a good background is important. It’s actually really tightly linked to their personality and it is what shaped them and it’s what they use to base their decisions on.
1. the 5 points.
This is actually something I learned at school as a socialization technique but I also apply it to my characters. The thing you do is that you take 5 points in your character’s life where something happened that impacted their life. This can be something really good, or bad or whatever. You then write down; their age, what happened, what your character experienced during that time, and how it affected their growth.
Example:
When Lola was 10 years old, her mom got very sick. Because of this, her mom was often very tired, and unlike normal where she would have lunch at home with her parents and siblings, she then often had to go to friends or eat at her dad’s office. Meanwhile, at school, her teacher took maturity leave, meaning she had a sub every day for an entire year. This meant that she didn’t have a stable school life, and also an unstable home situation. During that time, Lola felt lost and restless, partly because she didn’t fully understand why her mom was so tired and how serious her disease was.
Her mom ended up getting better but because of this period, Lola now gets easily overstimulated and tense when she’s in a situation where things don’t have stability or where she has no control over the situation.
2. Ups and downs.
It’s important to have both ups and downs in a backstory. This shows the sides what can negatively affect a character, or bring back bad memories, but also shows where this person finds joy and what they hold with them as a happy memory as well as what is dear to them. A person never has only bad things or good things, because even though things might not be extremely good or extremely bad. For someone who has never had anything bad happen to them, a rejection, or a big failed attempt can be very impactful. The same for someone who had a lot of bad things happen to them, something small like a good conversation, a moment of escape or a special place can be enough of a happy moment for them.
3. People.
Involve other people into the backstory. They can be all kinds of roles: The Supporting Sister, The Guiding Teacher, The Cruel Parent or Strict Grandparent. Relationships is what shapes us. Other people’s view on us, their excitment of our achievements as well as their expectations and position compared to ours is all part of what made us who we are.
4. Where did they grow up?
The origin of the person is important. What type of family did they have, what was the atmosphere in there? But also, what kind of town/city/ country did they grow up in?
Examples:
Two characters are about to go home after a party. Both have a busy life that they often don’t have contact with friends or family for a few days.
Suzan grew up in a city that never sleeps, to go home he has to walk for 30 minutes through well-lit streets with people everywhere which she also walks to go to work.
April grew up in a farmers area. The streets have no lights, there are no other people around and the only few cars that do drive by are often going significantly over the speed limit. if something were to happen, it could take days for someone to be found. April has to walk 30 minutes to get home.
Suzan will always go home alone.
April almost always goes home with someone else who lives nearby. When she leaves she leaves a message to someone that she’s leaving and also leaves a text when she gets home.
Both get kidnapped, but who is the first one of the two who they will look for? and who has a better chance on getting found?
These forces of habits from their past might be useful for their curent life as well.
1. the 5 points.
This is actually something I learned at school as a socialization technique but I also apply it to my characters. The thing you do is that you take 5 points in your character’s life where something happened that impacted their life. This can be something really good, or bad or whatever. You then write down; their age, what happened, what your character experienced during that time, and how it affected their growth.
Example:
When Lola was 10 years old, her mom got very sick. Because of this, her mom was often very tired, and unlike normal where she would have lunch at home with her parents and siblings, she then often had to go to friends or eat at her dad’s office. Meanwhile, at school, her teacher took maturity leave, meaning she had a sub every day for an entire year. This meant that she didn’t have a stable school life, and also an unstable home situation. During that time, Lola felt lost and restless, partly because she didn’t fully understand why her mom was so tired and how serious her disease was.
Her mom ended up getting better but because of this period, Lola now gets easily overstimulated and tense when she’s in a situation where things don’t have stability or where she has no control over the situation.
2. Ups and downs.
It’s important to have both ups and downs in a backstory. This shows the sides what can negatively affect a character, or bring back bad memories, but also shows where this person finds joy and what they hold with them as a happy memory as well as what is dear to them. A person never has only bad things or good things, because even though things might not be extremely good or extremely bad. For someone who has never had anything bad happen to them, a rejection, or a big failed attempt can be very impactful. The same for someone who had a lot of bad things happen to them, something small like a good conversation, a moment of escape or a special place can be enough of a happy moment for them.
3. People.
Involve other people into the backstory. They can be all kinds of roles: The Supporting Sister, The Guiding Teacher, The Cruel Parent or Strict Grandparent. Relationships is what shapes us. Other people’s view on us, their excitment of our achievements as well as their expectations and position compared to ours is all part of what made us who we are.
4. Where did they grow up?
The origin of the person is important. What type of family did they have, what was the atmosphere in there? But also, what kind of town/city/ country did they grow up in?
Examples:
Two characters are about to go home after a party. Both have a busy life that they often don’t have contact with friends or family for a few days.
Suzan grew up in a city that never sleeps, to go home he has to walk for 30 minutes through well-lit streets with people everywhere which she also walks to go to work.
April grew up in a farmers area. The streets have no lights, there are no other people around and the only few cars that do drive by are often going significantly over the speed limit. if something were to happen, it could take days for someone to be found. April has to walk 30 minutes to get home.
Suzan will always go home alone.
April almost always goes home with someone else who lives nearby. When she leaves she leaves a message to someone that she’s leaving and also leaves a text when she gets home.
Both get kidnapped, but who is the first one of the two who they will look for? and who has a better chance on getting found?
These forces of habits from their past might be useful for their curent life as well.
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