I love writing backstories, for leads, villains, side characters, and more. While i think they are definitely most important for your villains and leads, you're going to be able to write other characters so much more effectively the more you understand about their backstories/lives. It doesn't have to be as far back as their childhood, just knowing what's going on in their lives atm, even if it will never be shown, or what happened to them the year before the story starts will have a huge effect on their behavior and character, and it shines through in a persons actions. Somethings are deep set, something's are recent struggles, and thus more likely to fade out overtime, when the recent experience mellows in their memories, but all of them are relevant.
Interestingly enough, one of my main struggles was designing a backstory for my female lead in "Hushabye Prince" (Kimberly.) For the female lead (Alicia) of "Damsel in the Red Dress" her backstory created itself naturally and just made sense for her character:
"Kattarâs mother has always spoiled me, almost as much as she spoiled him, ever since he and I met in Junior high. They had just moved into their new house then, and I had just moved in with my aunt, so I spent as much time as I could at their place, instead of mine.
Kattar and I used to talk for hours about television and art. He made me watch action movies I couldnât stand, and he listened for longer than any reasonable person should, to me explaining the âstoryâ behind each of my âmasterpieces.â
I worked with crayons back then, and office pens, cuz they were cheap. But Mrs. Moon said she âjust couldnât have that.â Not for a girl as talented as me."
And the whole red-thread spiral in "Sanguine Thread."
But with Kimberly, it felt like I was working in reverse, trying to make her backstory make her make sense, rather than her backstory make sense for her, which definitely made it more difficult.
However, for a lot of the other characters, their backstories just seemed to appear naturally, or have been part of the story since the original draft 4 years ago, so writing their behavior based on those things just weaves smoothly into the rest of the plot.
I think it's just a struggle for me because in a lot of my stories people's backstories ARE a huge portion of the plot, but once I've figured it out, they're fun to write. In the end it all depends on the character the story and the method for me.
What about you? Struggles? Favorite parts? Examples?
Mrs. Moon's backstory I hadn't the least idea of until one day I started to