CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

Why You Should Know The Life of Your Characters Before the Story’s Beginning

It makes them multi-dimensional and makes the story memorable

“When Martina first noticed Paolo walking on the sidewalk, she couldn’t believe his eyes. Never in her imagination had she thought of meeting Paolo in such an ordinary circumstance.”

Let’s say it is the beginning of a story. What is Martina going to do next? Aren’t Martina’s past encounters with Paolo would shape her behaviors today?

It surely would because the way we humans live the day results from our way of being and experiences up to that point.

That’s why backstory is so important for your characters, for them to be humans.

The backstory is what happened to your character before the story began

Getting back to our story, who is this Martina? How old is she? How does she know Paolo? Are they friendly to each other? How does Martina greet someone?

These little details may or may not feature in your story.

But whatever happened to your characters for them to come to this opening point of your story is what an author should find in the character’s backstory.

It’s the personal history of your characters, a fundamental step in character development.

It is an excellent tool for the author, as it can hugely benefit understanding your characters — their fears, inner and outer lives, motivations, etc.

The backstory impacts a character’s behavior and adds depth to the story

Different events shape a person's life, whether they happened yesterday or a long time ago.

The richer the character’s backgrounds are, the more depth you will get into your story.

These details would also help you differentiate one character from the other with specific actions and dialogues.

Your responsibility as a writer is to give the characters human forms and personalities by pulling out essential details from their life history.

Some of these important life events could be:

• The time, date, and place of birth.
• Family orientations and the relationships with each other.
• Personality type, skills, and talents.
• Educational background, profession, passion, and hobbies.
• Current and past relationship status.
• Political affiliation, spiritual life, life views, and goals.
• Anger triggers, goals, joys, fears, dreams, etc.
• Friends and acquaintances.
• Biggest failures, successes, tragedies.

So, immerse yourself in your characters and fill their lives with incidents and events. Let your imagination flow and visualize their childhood, love life, professional career, and such in the context of your story.

For example, if you know the relationship between Martina and Paolo, you can design how they speak or respond to each other authentically.

It doesn’t matter if in your novel will be shown only one day of the life of your characters: the way they will live that day, every single gesture, will be the result of their way of being and experiences lived before the story’s beginning.

When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.

Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon

Conclusion

Knowing the life of your characters before the story begins is crucial. It will allow you to create multi-dimensional characters and a memorable story.

Need help crafting multi-dimensional characters? Take a look at bibisco novel writing software!

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