Why Did Your Character Do That?

Everyone has a back story. Our pasts shape us. People do things because of things that happened in the past. This is true for your characters as well. You don’t have to show the reason your character has trust issues in the story, but you need to know why.

Of course, you might hint at the reason in the story, just make sure that you don’t go into too much detail on why your characters do what they do. It’s enough to hint. After all, the reason why your character has trust issues isn’t the story. It can become the story, if you let it. That may be counter productive though. If it isn’t the story, then just hint at the reason.

“Mary’s high school boyfriend cheated on her. Chad was a complete tool. Bob wasn’t Chad. She had to remind herself of that.”

So now the reader knows why Mary doesn’t trust Bob. He apparently reminds her of Chad. That’s why you need to do a complete background on your characters. If Mary is a main or even just a supporting character, you need to know as much about her as you can.

You don’t need to do the same for Chad, unless he appears in the story. If he’s just a name, then you can ignore the reasons why he cheated, which could be as simple as he was too young to commit himself to a relationship and mishandled it. Or perhaps he saw his father or mother cheat repeatedly and learned the behavior that way. If he doesn’t appear in the story, it doesn’t matter. Only Mary’s reasons for her trust issues matters.

A character’s back story is a great source of conflict for your story. So develop your characters as detailed as you can. Then mine their back stories for conflict in the story. You will have more realistic characters if you do that.
Just one or two lines of text can tell the reader a lot. Consider this, “Jimmy thought nothing of taking what he wanted because his mother was in jail so often for petty theft, it was as though the jail had a revolving door.” We learn things from our parents so your characters should as well.

It doesn’t have to be negative values either. We learn positive things as well. “His father’s military approach to child rearing was probably a factor in Joe’s obsession with orderliness.” Any trait your character exhibits is rooted in their past, just as your traits are rooted in your past.

If you develop your characters’ back stories, you will create believable characters. That’s the goal. So go ahead and develop a past for your characters. They will pop off the page and become people your readers want to know. Your readers will thank you for that.

About pebblepup

I am not one who is comfortable talking about myself but here goes. I enjoy writing, family history, and reading. I decided to do this blog because I wanted to try something new. I decided to make it a weekly blog because I wasn't sure that I could keep up with a daily one, and monthly seemed like I was writing a magazine. I think I did ok with my choices. You'll notice that there are not a lot of graphics on my site. That's because there are graphics plastered everywhere on the Internet and those sites sometimes take forever to load. This blog is a place where you can kick back, relax and be ready to be amused. At least I hope I willbamuse you. This blog is on a variety of subjects from my ficitional cat agency, the FFL, which is monthly, to instructional blogs to editorials, which are my opinions only. I admit that I don't know everything and could be wrong -- I frequently am. Now, stop reading about me and read what I have to say!