Character Development For Authors, Part Four: Character History Details
Now we're moving on to history details. In this post, however, the history details are also mixing with aspects of personality, which you may have noticed in the last one as well. This is because personal history has a huge affect on how personalities develop, and the way your character reacts to things in their past tells you about their personality.
If you haven't been writing down the decisions you've been making, now would be an excellent time to start, since many of the details you'll be adding to your character's history will also have bearing on their personality, and you may need to reference them.
Friendships:
Your character's friendships can be a vital part of how they interact both with their world, and your readers. Can you imagine Harry Potter without Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger? Or Sherlock without Watson? Your character's friendships not only give you other people to use to complicate the plot, add subplots, or promote conflict, but they also give you a way to show your character's hidden personality to readers. It even gives you a way to, through conversation, introduce past experiences or current events within the world of your book.
Your character's close friends may need special treatment, such as a character profile much like what you're doing now, in order for them to interact properly and have a personality with depth. The way your characters became friends offers a rich source of conversation material, as well as background information, potential sources for conflict, conflict resolution, and subplots, among other things.
Why they became friends, perhaps even more than how, can give great insight to both characters. Maybe they met someone exactly like them, and needed that kind of friendship. Maybe they met someone the opposite of them, and liked the new experiences this friend offered. Maybe they became friends because they were both picked on in school, and needed some kind of support. The possibilities are endless, and also offer many great story opportunities in their own right.
Past Jobs:
Maybe your rich CEO started as a cashier at a fast food place. Maybe they've never worked as anything less than a manager. Maybe they've never worked at all. Whatever past jobs your character has had, they give this character more depth, and more to their story for you to draw on when you start writing. Their past jobs can explain everything from why they hate the sight of broccoli (working in a grocery store's produce department, perhaps?) to why they treat customer service reps badly (never had a job=don't really understand what it's like dealing with difficult people, maybe?). This can also be used to explain how they met friends or acquaintances, and why they know how to make homemade pizza or catalog a library.
You want a character that people can relate to on some level. And this can involve past jobs, their experiences on those jobs, and how they led to the job they have in the time frame of the story. It might be helpful, at this point, to write out a timeline, especially if you have a character that has had many different jobs, and you need to keep track of which ones they had when. It might also be helpful for you to know why those jobs are past jobs. Did they get fired? Did they quit? Were they laid off? Why?
Motivations:
This particular section delves pretty deeply into character personality, but it's also within the scope of the history theme for this post. Many real people have motivations deeply seated in past experiences, which is why it's included here.
Your character needs motivation for what they're doing, and you need to know what that motivation is. Many fantasy characters go out to save the world. But why? Because no one else will? Because they were manipulated? Because they love their family? Because they have a hatred for the power trying to destroy everything?
They want a different job. Why? Do they have dreams of being rich and powerful? Why? maybe in the story they go to medical school. Why do they want to go to medical school? Is it because they want to save lives? What made them decide they wanted to save lives enough to go through the difficulties and hardships of medical school?
Do they want a relationship with a particular person? Why? is this person the epitome of what they visualize as the perfect mate? Where did that vision come from?
Do they want a promotion at work? Why? Is his wife pregnant, and he wants to be sure he can provide for them? Do they have a rivalry with a coworker, and they want to rise higher and faster? Why?
This is one of the more complex things you'll need to think about when working on your character. Whatever your character does, there is a motivation for it. These motivations can be intertwined in complicated ways, or one motivation can stem from another. There can even be several motivations that are in conflict with each other, and this can be a huge part of your story as well.
Traveling:
The places your character has been can help you flesh out their history and their current setting in a number of different ways. If your character has done any traveling, you can add mementos of those trips to their current setting. Maybe while in India your character developed a taste for curry, so a stock of it can always be found in their kitchen. Perhaps they visited England for an extended period of time, and adopted a slight accent. Maybe while in Scotland they discovered that, strangely enough, they love haggis.
The things you can choose from present you with endless combinations to add detail to your character. You can pick different elements from various destinations to add to the setting; fossils from an archeological dig in a desert, seashells from a beach, carvings from Africa.
This also adds more detail to your character's personality. Why did they go to those places? What did they experience? How did it affect their lives and perceptions? Did they make new friends? Experience something life-changing? Discover something new about history?
But, they don't have to go anywhere for this to still be an important aspect of your character. Maybe they've always wanted to travel, but haven't been able to. Maybe they have souvenirs, ordered online, to decorate their house or office because they want to go. Or, maybe they haven't gone anywhere and never wanted to. if that's the case, then in part of your story perhaps they're forced to leave their comfort zone and go someplace new, someplace they never really wanted to go in the first place.
The possibilities are endless.
Good/Bad Memories:
Good and bad memories, like the past traumas in the last post, can have huge bearing on your character's attitude through the story. Both shape how real people grow and develop, and both can have good and bad effects on your character, depending on what you need from them and how their personalities are shaping up.
Bad memories can cripple your character, make their lives harder, or give them motivation. Good memories can give them a reason to keep going after you've finished making their lives difficult, something touching to share with another character that develops the relationship, or further the plot. You can get more creative with them, too, by making a bad memory something that you turn into a positive one through the story, or turning a good memory on its head.
Whether a memory is considered good or bad by your character depends on their personality and attitude. So this is another part of history that mixes with personality. By choosing memories that your character perceives as good, you are telling your readers what they see as good. You do the same when you choose memories that your character perceives as bad. A character that sees a memory of a field of butterflies as a good thing, for instance, can be an easy way of telling us that your character likes butterflies, that positive emotions are associated with that memory for some reason, or, if you want to go more deeply into symbolism, that they are free-spirited, flighty, or innocent.
If a different character views that same field as a bad memory, well. Most people would assume that some unpleasant variables are at work. That character might have negative feelings associated with that field; perhaps something terrible happened there. Maybe they're frightened of insects, and butterflies are no exception. Maybe they dislike bright colors, or, to them, the erratic nature of their flight reminds them of a disapproval of people that live erratically.
Good and bad memories can manifest as fears as well. A bad memory of the day a mother or father leaves the home, for example, can manifest as a fear of abandonment, or they might attach the feelings they had in those moments to an object in the room, the way the light seemed, the type of day it was, and a recurrence of those conditions can bring with them the same mood as when the memory first took place.
Medical History:
If your character had scars in the second step of this series, then this would be the place to attach a story to them. This is where you would put the times they were hospitalized, if any, their injuries, surgeries. This is also another way to make a character seem more real.
If you have a character that gets hospitalized in the course of your story, it might be a good idea to have worked out if they've been in that position before. If they have, then they may know or recognize doctors, they should be aware of reactions to medications, and will know more about what to do. If they haven't ever been hospitalized, then chances are, they won't know as much about those things. Either way, it's a great opportunity to add conflict. Misplaced medical records, the wrong medication, drama with the doctors or nurses, there are many things that writing down a little information on their medical history can bring to your story.
This is also something that can be mentioned casually in a conversation with a friend, especially if a hospital has a key place in your plot. Past medical history can give you an easy way of bringing it into the story early, and without having to work hard or drop an info-dump on a reader.
Coming up next week, we get to step into personality!
If you haven't been writing down the decisions you've been making, now would be an excellent time to start, since many of the details you'll be adding to your character's history will also have bearing on their personality, and you may need to reference them.
Friendships:
Your character's friendships can be a vital part of how they interact both with their world, and your readers. Can you imagine Harry Potter without Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger? Or Sherlock without Watson? Your character's friendships not only give you other people to use to complicate the plot, add subplots, or promote conflict, but they also give you a way to show your character's hidden personality to readers. It even gives you a way to, through conversation, introduce past experiences or current events within the world of your book.
Your character's close friends may need special treatment, such as a character profile much like what you're doing now, in order for them to interact properly and have a personality with depth. The way your characters became friends offers a rich source of conversation material, as well as background information, potential sources for conflict, conflict resolution, and subplots, among other things.
Why they became friends, perhaps even more than how, can give great insight to both characters. Maybe they met someone exactly like them, and needed that kind of friendship. Maybe they met someone the opposite of them, and liked the new experiences this friend offered. Maybe they became friends because they were both picked on in school, and needed some kind of support. The possibilities are endless, and also offer many great story opportunities in their own right.
Past Jobs:
Maybe your rich CEO started as a cashier at a fast food place. Maybe they've never worked as anything less than a manager. Maybe they've never worked at all. Whatever past jobs your character has had, they give this character more depth, and more to their story for you to draw on when you start writing. Their past jobs can explain everything from why they hate the sight of broccoli (working in a grocery store's produce department, perhaps?) to why they treat customer service reps badly (never had a job=don't really understand what it's like dealing with difficult people, maybe?). This can also be used to explain how they met friends or acquaintances, and why they know how to make homemade pizza or catalog a library.
You want a character that people can relate to on some level. And this can involve past jobs, their experiences on those jobs, and how they led to the job they have in the time frame of the story. It might be helpful, at this point, to write out a timeline, especially if you have a character that has had many different jobs, and you need to keep track of which ones they had when. It might also be helpful for you to know why those jobs are past jobs. Did they get fired? Did they quit? Were they laid off? Why?
Motivations:
This particular section delves pretty deeply into character personality, but it's also within the scope of the history theme for this post. Many real people have motivations deeply seated in past experiences, which is why it's included here.
Your character needs motivation for what they're doing, and you need to know what that motivation is. Many fantasy characters go out to save the world. But why? Because no one else will? Because they were manipulated? Because they love their family? Because they have a hatred for the power trying to destroy everything?
They want a different job. Why? Do they have dreams of being rich and powerful? Why? maybe in the story they go to medical school. Why do they want to go to medical school? Is it because they want to save lives? What made them decide they wanted to save lives enough to go through the difficulties and hardships of medical school?
Do they want a relationship with a particular person? Why? is this person the epitome of what they visualize as the perfect mate? Where did that vision come from?
Do they want a promotion at work? Why? Is his wife pregnant, and he wants to be sure he can provide for them? Do they have a rivalry with a coworker, and they want to rise higher and faster? Why?
This is one of the more complex things you'll need to think about when working on your character. Whatever your character does, there is a motivation for it. These motivations can be intertwined in complicated ways, or one motivation can stem from another. There can even be several motivations that are in conflict with each other, and this can be a huge part of your story as well.
Traveling:
The places your character has been can help you flesh out their history and their current setting in a number of different ways. If your character has done any traveling, you can add mementos of those trips to their current setting. Maybe while in India your character developed a taste for curry, so a stock of it can always be found in their kitchen. Perhaps they visited England for an extended period of time, and adopted a slight accent. Maybe while in Scotland they discovered that, strangely enough, they love haggis.
The things you can choose from present you with endless combinations to add detail to your character. You can pick different elements from various destinations to add to the setting; fossils from an archeological dig in a desert, seashells from a beach, carvings from Africa.
This also adds more detail to your character's personality. Why did they go to those places? What did they experience? How did it affect their lives and perceptions? Did they make new friends? Experience something life-changing? Discover something new about history?
But, they don't have to go anywhere for this to still be an important aspect of your character. Maybe they've always wanted to travel, but haven't been able to. Maybe they have souvenirs, ordered online, to decorate their house or office because they want to go. Or, maybe they haven't gone anywhere and never wanted to. if that's the case, then in part of your story perhaps they're forced to leave their comfort zone and go someplace new, someplace they never really wanted to go in the first place.
The possibilities are endless.
Good/Bad Memories:
Good and bad memories, like the past traumas in the last post, can have huge bearing on your character's attitude through the story. Both shape how real people grow and develop, and both can have good and bad effects on your character, depending on what you need from them and how their personalities are shaping up.
Bad memories can cripple your character, make their lives harder, or give them motivation. Good memories can give them a reason to keep going after you've finished making their lives difficult, something touching to share with another character that develops the relationship, or further the plot. You can get more creative with them, too, by making a bad memory something that you turn into a positive one through the story, or turning a good memory on its head.
Whether a memory is considered good or bad by your character depends on their personality and attitude. So this is another part of history that mixes with personality. By choosing memories that your character perceives as good, you are telling your readers what they see as good. You do the same when you choose memories that your character perceives as bad. A character that sees a memory of a field of butterflies as a good thing, for instance, can be an easy way of telling us that your character likes butterflies, that positive emotions are associated with that memory for some reason, or, if you want to go more deeply into symbolism, that they are free-spirited, flighty, or innocent.
If a different character views that same field as a bad memory, well. Most people would assume that some unpleasant variables are at work. That character might have negative feelings associated with that field; perhaps something terrible happened there. Maybe they're frightened of insects, and butterflies are no exception. Maybe they dislike bright colors, or, to them, the erratic nature of their flight reminds them of a disapproval of people that live erratically.
Good and bad memories can manifest as fears as well. A bad memory of the day a mother or father leaves the home, for example, can manifest as a fear of abandonment, or they might attach the feelings they had in those moments to an object in the room, the way the light seemed, the type of day it was, and a recurrence of those conditions can bring with them the same mood as when the memory first took place.
Medical History:
If your character had scars in the second step of this series, then this would be the place to attach a story to them. This is where you would put the times they were hospitalized, if any, their injuries, surgeries. This is also another way to make a character seem more real.
If you have a character that gets hospitalized in the course of your story, it might be a good idea to have worked out if they've been in that position before. If they have, then they may know or recognize doctors, they should be aware of reactions to medications, and will know more about what to do. If they haven't ever been hospitalized, then chances are, they won't know as much about those things. Either way, it's a great opportunity to add conflict. Misplaced medical records, the wrong medication, drama with the doctors or nurses, there are many things that writing down a little information on their medical history can bring to your story.
This is also something that can be mentioned casually in a conversation with a friend, especially if a hospital has a key place in your plot. Past medical history can give you an easy way of bringing it into the story early, and without having to work hard or drop an info-dump on a reader.
Coming up next week, we get to step into personality!
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