How much backstory do you design for your characters? How much do you think is worth sharing (for leads, antagonists, side characters and more) (share your examples)

[lignorice]

This is a nice topic to contemplate.

My current series, which is published here, Eigria: Lume actually has the character living in my head for real. Their backstory are easiest to get the grasp, while still being deep. Still, slight changes are made due to refining draft, but the overall concept are there since I started write the very first draft.

I consider the backstory, especially for those who is important in the story, from their family background. If they have no real family, how did they grow up? In what kind of environment, with what kind of people? What shaped them until the present moments of the story? What turned them into they are in the story? It came naturally as the concepting goes.

The only two I struggle is the twinsies granny, Benette and Benetta. Until today, I haven't found out, nor able to get info from them (kidding, but hey, they live in my head lol), how did they end up in there, yet they are very important to the story. I really have no idea about their backstory or how far I should go for them.

Read Eigria: Lume | Tapas Web Novels

As for my other drafts, I dwelled too much into their backstory until I got lost at the present. I love the backstories, most of them not really made impact in the time of the story. So this is the struggle. It should have been the most impact, yet they are scattered everywhere, and they are not even puzzle pieces.

[BoomerZ]

I have just enough backstory to make the character fit into my story. Everything else is a waste of time. I know it can be fun to do it but the more energy you put into it, the less energy is spent doing more important things, like finishing your work. I've seen way too many writer/artist get caught up designing stuff and never actually finishing the project. It really does follow the adage "what happens over that hill doesn't matter".

[Leyelle]

that really depends on the story, for certain stories, the characters ARE the story, and the plot can go anywhere, sometimes into the depths of who they are and what made them that way.

[NickRowler]

I feel like you should create a lot of lore/backstory before writing your story. You won’t use it all, heck you might only use as most 10% but it is good to have as a reference if you need to pull from it.

I do agree that you shouldn’t overload readers with unnecessary information. Is it necessary to name drop a character’s grandpa if he never shows up or isn’t relevant to the plot? Especially if it’s backstory for a minor character. If a character only contributes very little to the main plot, you don’t need to be mapping out a whole family tree or timeline for them.

[faisalhussein394]

I did make a backstory for one of my character who is the woman who adopted the MC as her own son but not only about her backstory but her experience as a Hashashin and her relations with them and more lore on the assassins so yeah, that part was an opportunity because I love world-building.

Not only do I give backstory to characters but to different factions, though only one page each, leaving the important one with dozens.

[cherrystark]

I read a writing tip that said "you should know the full iceberg, but just write the tip." I know the general backstories for my characters but I don't write about it unless it's immediately important to the story.

[UrMom]

All my characters have full backstories, but I only share enough to give them a little depth. Like I'll have my two MCs bring something up from their childhoods, a place they went to or worked at, names of people they once knew. Sometimes I'll show photos, or glimpses of the past in flashbacks. Readers don't need to know the full context of everything because it would be irrelevant filler, I just use what matters to the main story, and what would allow folks to fill in the blanks themselves.

My MC's went through a lot of changes since their creation. In a way their backstories used to be the opposite of what they are now, but that didn't really feel natural so I messed with them until I got something that worked.

[skidiggy]

I'm not sure if this is "normal," but I'd been piecing together extensive backstories for every main and side character in Apparent Secrets off and on for about nine years before I started writing the actual story. It was a hobby of mine to do world-building and character studies during my off hours from work, and I collected a shocking amount of notebook pages and sticky notes with heaps of character data on them.

The roommates and love interests came first, and the villains/antagonists followed shortly thereafter. In that time, the genre and themes morphed a bit, but the characters and their motivations remained the same.

[ladyofthedarkwoods]

All my characters are alive in my head and have full stories of their own, I don’t always write down those stories though. So I simply use their backstories to develop the characters, even if their backstories are never revealed in the series

[2DLenzy]

I didn't have much planned when I first started, but as the plot developed, so did my characters, though at a slow pace, which is fine. I actually got some for my MCs now, though it will be time before bits are shared openly. Like how did Friar become a friar? It's hinted early that he was dubbed (made a eunuch) but the reason is unknown, to be explored/explained later. Still working on the human backstory, particularly Alec's, cause he's been there a while and gone through some stuff. Even Bucky has a little backstory now--used to be on another farm, but was transferred to/rescued by the Tryon's based on him not doing a good job of being a rooster. Nothing too detailed yet.

Bottom line, I guess, I rather like to keep going forward with the plot, and BS the stuff "going backwards", until I have my "aha" moments and find a near-perfect explanation for certain behaviors/characters/etc. But I know I can't explain everything in detail, so I may not on certain things...It's my first comic...

[Leyelle]

i do the same thing with my OCs, i know the backstory of every relevant (adult) character in Hushabye Prince rn

[KevinReijnders]

I mainly reserve the extensive background building for my main characters. And I try to avoid going deeper with it than necessary, but enough to get a solid grap and understanding on who the characters are.

Their backstory will change a lot during early development, as it needs to serve the arc and story I want to tell, same with the worldbuilding.

Most of my extras and side characters don't have much of a backstory, only when it becomes plot relevant will I invent something to support the narrative. Hell, even my main antagonist, Grayson, doesn't have much of a backstory going for him, he just doesn't need it to serve his role in the story.

Sometimes all you need to know is what drives them in the here and now. In that sense, I'll spend a lot more effort into inventing a character's personality, because that's what you'll be interacting the most with.

[KSlinger]

I only develop as much backstory as I need because I just don't enjoy it. For Eliaz, his family background is relatively important to his storyline, so I know way more about his childhood/family life than I know about Jed's (the MC). If the story requires an answer, I have it, but if I don't have to muddy the water, I don't. There's enough work to do already

[zukasuki481]

Not gonna lie, my novel started off as background fodder for another novel I was writing before developing into its own story and demanding attention more, I want to work on the other novel as well since I kinda want to loosely base these works off of fairytales and various myths but that's only if I ever decide to write out a series if this one does well.

I'm not sure which fairytales would be the inspiration of this novel though I did label 'Rapunzel' in the beginning and maybe a little bit of Sleeping Beauty due to her being in an enchanted sleep.

[Leyelle]

ooh! fairy tale themes, i love those, that's a huge part of my comic "Hushabye Prince" and even a bit of the idea in "Damsel in the Red Dress" too

[skidiggy]

Glad to know I'm not alone.

[Glofernwolfe]

I have so much backstory and lore, I actually have a folder called "Lore", in my drive. I'm working on a website (which is going super slowly), in which I intend to add all my lore and concept art. Like a wiki.

I'll share it with subscribers when it's live.

[zukasuki481]

Yeah, another one is a combo of greek myths, Treasure Island and Atlantis while the novel I had started this one off of was strictly Swan Lake but with a twist.

[zukasuki481]

Oooh, I wish you luck then!

[Leyelle]

i don't really know the plot to swan lake, but i love using myths too lol, guess we're both old story buffs