Character Development For Authors, Part Three: Character History Basics
So now we're moving past the appearance, and moving into more detail-work. Your character's history will directly affect their personality and their actions, so it's important to keep in mind the part you need this character to play, and to shape their history in such a way that doing what you want them to is a natural result of the personality you give them.
You are in charge of your characters. You decide what they do and do not do. But it can sometimes be difficult keeping your character's actions consistent with their personalities. For myself, if I want a character to do something specific, but they wouldn't ever choose to do it on their own, I have to then manipulate the circumstances around them until they would make the choice I desire.
So identify the role you want your character to play before getting started. This will help you when it comes time to start writing.
Parents/Parenting Styles):
The way your character was raised will play a huge part in how they behave and see the world. If your character was raised by parents, either birth or adoptive, then those adults will have had a parenting style that did or didn't work for your character in many ways. If they were an orphan, or raised by other family members, this will also have an impact on their worldview.
How these things affect your character can differ widely. What may negatively affect one character may have a positive affect on another. For example, one character may have loved a freewheeling lifestyle with few rules, while another may have felt lost in such a life, because of few boundaries. One character may have had strict discipline growing up and therefore enjoys having a lifestyle that has never involved the consequences of rule-breaking. Another character in the same situation might grow up resentful of that discipline, and act out in rebellion.
Perhaps your character grew up in foster care, and that caused them to develop a hoarding mentality in adulthood, because they had so little. Or maybe growing up in foster care and having so little caused them only to greatly appreciate the things that they have. You'll need to decide how their upbringing still affects them at the time of the story, and why.
You can choose at this point to write a basic outline of your character's parents (or who raised them), or just outline the dominant parenting style in their life.
Siblings:
Siblings also play an important part of your character's development. Maybe they wanted a sibling and never got one, so that makes them feel like they were cheated. Perhaps they had a multitude of siblings, and spent much of their time feeling neglected by their parents. Maybe they lived in an orphanage and adopted some of the other children as siblings.
If you decide to give them siblings, now would be the time to decide birth order, and what kind of relationship your character has with them. If your character is the oldest, then maybe they take on the part of second mother or father. Maybe a protector, or maybe a tormenter. If they're the youngest, they could be the baby of the family that took too long to grow up, and was babied by older siblings. Or they could have been picked on constantly by older siblings. Perhaps the middle child/children always felt left out, or envious of their siblings because they were always stuck in the middle. Or, conversely, maybe the middle child/children was always thrilled to be the middle because they received less attention and therefore were able to get into more trouble with fewer consequences. An interesting article about birth order can be found here.
You don't need to go into a huge amount of detail here, although you can, especially if your character's siblings play a part in the story you're telling.
Schooling:
This section is a little broader. This can cover elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as college, special courses, home schooling, and many other things. If your character is a businessman, it might make sense to have him either go to business school or take some business courses. An artist might have taken specialized art classes at some point; if your character is a doctor, now would be the time to figure out what's necessary to become a doctor and decide what schools/hospitals they were involved with on the way there.
Adding schools to your character's history gives you the opening to add other characters to advance the plot in the form of schoolmates, school rivals, old friends, and teachers. It can also give you the chance to further expand on your character's parents, since they would have (usually) been the ones to choose what form their schooling would take. Maybe your character's parents chose homeschooling, but your character then went on to go to regular college, and found it a culture shock after learning at home.
Past traumas:
Traumas in your character's past can offer a rich source of motivation for them, and can also make them seem more real. One of my characters experienced an attack by a wild cat at a young age. This manifests later as a fear of cats. Another character (from this book, incidentally) suffered the trauma of being taken away from her parents while her parents did nothing to stop it. This resulted in her becoming angry, bitter, and resentful of her parents, as well as giving her a thirst for revenge.
Past traumas are particularly useful when designing a villain or antagonist. Many authors have a tendency to just make an antagonist generically evil, without giving them a real story with purpose and background. This, however, presents a very one-dimensional villain. A quick, easy way to fix that is to give them several traumas in their past that cause specific responses in the current time frame of your story. As an example, one of my antagonists grew up without knowing who her father and mother were. She survived on the meager scraps given to her by a miserly cook. She had no real room, she lived and slept on the floor of a dead end hallway, by herself. She grew up with a single-minded passion for power. She kidnapped children that were "lost" and took them to her home, where she brainwashed them with her version of love, because she didn't want them to be homeless and alone like herself. Her villainy was the result of neglect as a child, and the trauma of having no real home, and no one that cared for her.
Protagonists often suffer from the opposite problem. They are too good. They have no bad qualities or character flaws. Simply putting a trauma or two in their past can cure this issue. A good character, the hero, might hold a grudge against someone he otherwise loves because of how they mistreated him once. Perhaps they were made fun of in school, or embarrassed, and this gives him or her the desire to get back at the people who laughed by making them feel the same. This doesn't mean your character has to act on these desires, but giving that added flaw to their character makes them seem more real.
Past accomplishments:
This can also allow you to add both character flaws, and positive character traits. An antagonist, for example, might have won an award in school, and they brag about it and exhibit prideful behavior. A protagonist might also feel pride and act boastful, if you want them to have that as a character flaw. But if you want to turn it into a positive trait for them, you could have it be a subject that they never bring up themselves. You could even do this for an antagonist to give them a positive character trait.
These accomplishments can be high grades in school, getting into a great college, awards for various things, getting in the newspaper, breaking a record - the possibilities are endless, as are the places they can earn them from. Maybe they earned a first place in a sports championship, or a certificate of appreciation from a business, certification for specific duties, a belt level in a difficult martial art, a prestigious scholarship.
The accomplishments your character makes can tell readers a lot about them as well. If your businessman character has a black belt certificate framed on his wall at the office, that tells readers he's a black belt. If he has a trophy from a basketball championship displayed on his bookcase at home, you know he played basketball, and he played well. You could have another character find an old box of trophies and medals, and that can tell the reader several things. Maybe they just moved and haven't had a chance to put them up yet. Maybe, for some reason, they're ashamed of them. Maybe they're just very modest and hid them away in the box so no attention would be brought to them.
In another possibility, perhaps your character hasn't made any accomplishments. This can be very telling as well. Maybe they never competed or made the effort. Maybe they always lost. Either way, the accomplishments your character has or has not made can tell your readers a lot of things about your character.
Childhood dreams:
While these may or may not come into the story itself, it may very well be just the inspiration you need to get through a sticky spot, or explain behavior that otherwise doesn't make sense. The childhood dreams of any character (or even a real life person) often have lasting impact on their choices. And sometimes, those dreams persist into adulthood, even if we can logically dismiss them and label them as unimportant. It can also be a way to add some realism. If you have an otherwise stuffy character, to make them a little less stiff you could give them the childhood dream of having ice cream for breakfast. Perhaps they denied the chances to do it because it's not healthy or some other reason, but in your story they finally get to try it.
These childhood dreams could also be used to show a certain vulnerability. Say you have a character that's in a relationship. To show that this character is opening up, you can have him/her tell their significant other their childhood dream. You can then use this dream to create conflict by making the significant other betray them in some way, or to create a bonding experience that furthers the plot.
Next time we'll be going further into character history; if there's anything you'd like to see, let me know in the comments!
You are in charge of your characters. You decide what they do and do not do. But it can sometimes be difficult keeping your character's actions consistent with their personalities. For myself, if I want a character to do something specific, but they wouldn't ever choose to do it on their own, I have to then manipulate the circumstances around them until they would make the choice I desire.
So identify the role you want your character to play before getting started. This will help you when it comes time to start writing.
Parents/Parenting Styles):
The way your character was raised will play a huge part in how they behave and see the world. If your character was raised by parents, either birth or adoptive, then those adults will have had a parenting style that did or didn't work for your character in many ways. If they were an orphan, or raised by other family members, this will also have an impact on their worldview.
How these things affect your character can differ widely. What may negatively affect one character may have a positive affect on another. For example, one character may have loved a freewheeling lifestyle with few rules, while another may have felt lost in such a life, because of few boundaries. One character may have had strict discipline growing up and therefore enjoys having a lifestyle that has never involved the consequences of rule-breaking. Another character in the same situation might grow up resentful of that discipline, and act out in rebellion.
Perhaps your character grew up in foster care, and that caused them to develop a hoarding mentality in adulthood, because they had so little. Or maybe growing up in foster care and having so little caused them only to greatly appreciate the things that they have. You'll need to decide how their upbringing still affects them at the time of the story, and why.
You can choose at this point to write a basic outline of your character's parents (or who raised them), or just outline the dominant parenting style in their life.
Siblings:
Siblings also play an important part of your character's development. Maybe they wanted a sibling and never got one, so that makes them feel like they were cheated. Perhaps they had a multitude of siblings, and spent much of their time feeling neglected by their parents. Maybe they lived in an orphanage and adopted some of the other children as siblings.
If you decide to give them siblings, now would be the time to decide birth order, and what kind of relationship your character has with them. If your character is the oldest, then maybe they take on the part of second mother or father. Maybe a protector, or maybe a tormenter. If they're the youngest, they could be the baby of the family that took too long to grow up, and was babied by older siblings. Or they could have been picked on constantly by older siblings. Perhaps the middle child/children always felt left out, or envious of their siblings because they were always stuck in the middle. Or, conversely, maybe the middle child/children was always thrilled to be the middle because they received less attention and therefore were able to get into more trouble with fewer consequences. An interesting article about birth order can be found here.
You don't need to go into a huge amount of detail here, although you can, especially if your character's siblings play a part in the story you're telling.
Schooling:
This section is a little broader. This can cover elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as college, special courses, home schooling, and many other things. If your character is a businessman, it might make sense to have him either go to business school or take some business courses. An artist might have taken specialized art classes at some point; if your character is a doctor, now would be the time to figure out what's necessary to become a doctor and decide what schools/hospitals they were involved with on the way there.
Adding schools to your character's history gives you the opening to add other characters to advance the plot in the form of schoolmates, school rivals, old friends, and teachers. It can also give you the chance to further expand on your character's parents, since they would have (usually) been the ones to choose what form their schooling would take. Maybe your character's parents chose homeschooling, but your character then went on to go to regular college, and found it a culture shock after learning at home.
Past traumas:
Traumas in your character's past can offer a rich source of motivation for them, and can also make them seem more real. One of my characters experienced an attack by a wild cat at a young age. This manifests later as a fear of cats. Another character (from this book, incidentally) suffered the trauma of being taken away from her parents while her parents did nothing to stop it. This resulted in her becoming angry, bitter, and resentful of her parents, as well as giving her a thirst for revenge.
Past traumas are particularly useful when designing a villain or antagonist. Many authors have a tendency to just make an antagonist generically evil, without giving them a real story with purpose and background. This, however, presents a very one-dimensional villain. A quick, easy way to fix that is to give them several traumas in their past that cause specific responses in the current time frame of your story. As an example, one of my antagonists grew up without knowing who her father and mother were. She survived on the meager scraps given to her by a miserly cook. She had no real room, she lived and slept on the floor of a dead end hallway, by herself. She grew up with a single-minded passion for power. She kidnapped children that were "lost" and took them to her home, where she brainwashed them with her version of love, because she didn't want them to be homeless and alone like herself. Her villainy was the result of neglect as a child, and the trauma of having no real home, and no one that cared for her.
Protagonists often suffer from the opposite problem. They are too good. They have no bad qualities or character flaws. Simply putting a trauma or two in their past can cure this issue. A good character, the hero, might hold a grudge against someone he otherwise loves because of how they mistreated him once. Perhaps they were made fun of in school, or embarrassed, and this gives him or her the desire to get back at the people who laughed by making them feel the same. This doesn't mean your character has to act on these desires, but giving that added flaw to their character makes them seem more real.
Past accomplishments:
This can also allow you to add both character flaws, and positive character traits. An antagonist, for example, might have won an award in school, and they brag about it and exhibit prideful behavior. A protagonist might also feel pride and act boastful, if you want them to have that as a character flaw. But if you want to turn it into a positive trait for them, you could have it be a subject that they never bring up themselves. You could even do this for an antagonist to give them a positive character trait.
These accomplishments can be high grades in school, getting into a great college, awards for various things, getting in the newspaper, breaking a record - the possibilities are endless, as are the places they can earn them from. Maybe they earned a first place in a sports championship, or a certificate of appreciation from a business, certification for specific duties, a belt level in a difficult martial art, a prestigious scholarship.
The accomplishments your character makes can tell readers a lot about them as well. If your businessman character has a black belt certificate framed on his wall at the office, that tells readers he's a black belt. If he has a trophy from a basketball championship displayed on his bookcase at home, you know he played basketball, and he played well. You could have another character find an old box of trophies and medals, and that can tell the reader several things. Maybe they just moved and haven't had a chance to put them up yet. Maybe, for some reason, they're ashamed of them. Maybe they're just very modest and hid them away in the box so no attention would be brought to them.
In another possibility, perhaps your character hasn't made any accomplishments. This can be very telling as well. Maybe they never competed or made the effort. Maybe they always lost. Either way, the accomplishments your character has or has not made can tell your readers a lot of things about your character.
Childhood dreams:
While these may or may not come into the story itself, it may very well be just the inspiration you need to get through a sticky spot, or explain behavior that otherwise doesn't make sense. The childhood dreams of any character (or even a real life person) often have lasting impact on their choices. And sometimes, those dreams persist into adulthood, even if we can logically dismiss them and label them as unimportant. It can also be a way to add some realism. If you have an otherwise stuffy character, to make them a little less stiff you could give them the childhood dream of having ice cream for breakfast. Perhaps they denied the chances to do it because it's not healthy or some other reason, but in your story they finally get to try it.
These childhood dreams could also be used to show a certain vulnerability. Say you have a character that's in a relationship. To show that this character is opening up, you can have him/her tell their significant other their childhood dream. You can then use this dream to create conflict by making the significant other betray them in some way, or to create a bonding experience that furthers the plot.
Next time we'll be going further into character history; if there's anything you'd like to see, let me know in the comments!
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