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How important are character bios and do you use them?



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Wed Jan 07, 2015 8:25 pm
TheArchon says...



I've written character bios for my stories in the past. They were a good way to write down what I knew, but I never discover much with them. With my new story(s), I have a list of some characters and need to create more. The ones I have are not very fleshed our. Would it be best to write character bios for each character? Maybe discover things about them as I go along? Do you ever write character bios?
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Wed Jan 07, 2015 8:28 pm
TheArchon says...



Also I'm having difficult creating an antagonist, as in I have NO IDEA WHAT HE/SHE/IT SHOULD BE...
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Wed Jan 07, 2015 8:34 pm
steampowered says...



I don't physically write the character bio, but I need to know their backstory etc. really well before I start writing. I'd definitely concentrate on fleshing out all the main characters and adding details to lesser characters if they are important.

As for your antagonist, it really depends on your story. :)
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Wed Jan 07, 2015 8:38 pm
MarbleToast says...



The only time I really make bios is when I know that I'm going to forget or accidentally alter a detail when it's in my head. I think it's the best way to keep track of what you know about them. If you don't think some characters are fleshed out enough, then a bio would help you realise how their past experiences would influence decision-making.

Say you have a character called Bob. When he was a child, he was badly burnt on the arm by getting too close to a fire. However, we know him to be a real top-notch guy. He'll help whoever he can. So let's say in the story he has to run into a burning building- how is his morality going to weigh against his past experiences to decide if he runs into that building?

I'd say that in terms of planning a character’s personality and actions in a story, a bio would be really helpful.

Hope this helped.
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Wed Jan 07, 2015 8:42 pm
TheArchon says...



Is it okay for your character's personalities and back stories to change as you write the story? Like let's say one of my character's personalities just isn't working, can I change it?
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Wed Jan 07, 2015 9:17 pm
steampowered says...



A character can change through the story. For example, they can start off immature and gradually become wiser, or happy and gradually become more bitter. But they need to be influenced by the events and outcomes of the story for that to happen.

As for a backstory, I wouldn't just change it on a whim. If it has any influence whatsoever on the plot, you'd need to tweak details to bring them in line with the backstory. Take Bob for example. If you suddenly remove the fact he got burnt, it might change everything (such as his reaction to fire) It could totally change what happens in the story.
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Wed Jan 07, 2015 9:27 pm
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Rosendorn says...



The antagonist in the most simple sense of the term is "somebody/thing against the protagonist." They don't have to be evil, they don't have to be all that big, they don't have to be some great force. All you need is somebody or something working against the protagonist's goal to have an antagonist.

Not all stories need an antagonist.

As for character bios, I personally hate the vast majority of them. Most of the ones I see are more about character looks and arbitrary "here are he bad things"/"here are the good things" lists (when good characters should have "bad" traits get them out of trouble and "good" traits get them into trouble). They end up being limiting, boxy, and don't really let you think of characters as people who can be charming and manipulative to get what they want but also have anybody who sees what they're doing mistrust them. Same trait, but perceived differently and with different results depending on other characters.

The most I come up with is a few physical details, the social class/profession, their motive, and how they'll approach new situations. Character bios have never been useful for me, because they focus too much on things that don't actually drive the story. What you want to find out is why characters will go through the actions of the story, and how they'll react to the situations they'll be thrown into. You don't really need to know their build or height or weight. You can just start off with the sparsest of details and fill in the rest as you go along.

I tend to prefer filling it in as I go along because then things come up organically in the story. Recently in a colab I'm working on, I just threw a character in with only a single backstory point— where the character used to live— a general personality (diplomatic, stoic, detached), and a reference picture. After a few thousand words of writing I came up with a flood of backstory information that was all based on what I'd already written. It fit in, felt natural, and ended up richening the story. I could've never come up with that before writing, and I'm glad I didn't because instead of me driving what was going on, the story did.

You can always change this. Nothing in writing is ever set in stone, otherwise I'd be in trouble for how much dynamite I use! If you don't like a character's backstory or personality, then change it. In fact, it's actually completely normal to change the characters around a dozen times as you keep writing and realize new things about these people you're creating. You start off with one idea, then as the story develops, characters go "yeah I'm actually like this" and you have to edit to adapt to these characters developing themselves.

Even planning isn't set in stone.
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Thu Jan 08, 2015 6:16 pm
Lefty says...



I make character bios but like you, I never feel like I learn much about them. I tend to figure out and develop their characters as I go. Sometimes they turn out a little different than expected but that's ok, because that's how they were meant to be.

I heard someone suggest writing a short story of your character when they were young(er) to help flesh out their character, personality and backstory. I haven't actually done that yet but I really like that idea. I think it was intended for the main character but why not? If you write a short story about your side character where they are the main character, you might learn a lot more about them. Just an idea. Best of luck!
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Thu Jan 08, 2015 7:55 pm
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RacheDrache says...



If you want a character bio or questionnaire that's actually insightful, run them through the Proust survey: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proust_Questionnaire

Otherwise, I really only use other character bios for procrastination. Or, if my novel has a particularly large cast (which is often the case, because I like large casts), I might have all my characters in a chart so I can keep track of things like birthdates, eye colors, height, weight, appearance, general personality notes. It saves me time in fishing back through hundreds of pages to figure out what Spearbearer 2 was like in that one line of dialogue he had.

I also find it helpful to ask "Why?" about a character until you reach a point where you can do it no more:

"Why did Bob kill Jane?"
-He hated her.
"Why did he hate her?"
-She cheated on him.
"Why did he hate that she cheated on him."
-He felt betrayed.
"Why did he feel betrayed?"
-He had trusted her not to cheat.

And so on and so forth until you discover that when Bob was five, his older sister had taken the shortcut home from school and gotten herself killed, which launched his mother into a fit of depression and himself into a state of denial. So on and so forth.

You can also apply the Freudian lens, in which case everything comes down to childhood traumas and sex. Or a Feminist lens, in which everything is about operating within the cisheteromasculanormative. Or an Anthro approach where biology is behind everything.

It doesn't matter how you understand human behavior, as long as you're understanding it rather than pigeonholing it into a few short boxes on a character survey designed like a prison profile.
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