forum Your favorite type of backstory

Started March 06, 2018 by @Paperok

tune

from a destroyed home to raised in riches what is your favorite kind of backstory?

I like backstories with a positive and a negative. If their background is all bad like 'im abused, my only good parent died, we live in a box, and i've never had a friend in my life.' Y'know, thats kind of over dramatic. But if it is like 'I'm a princess, everyone loves me, my parents are great and bow down to me, and i've never been low on money.' Thats boring. There has got to be a mix between sad and happy!

My character's kind of like that. Princess Fotia is a princess whose parents died when she was little, and she grew up in a dystopian kingdom. She was loved, though.

im not really into characters telling backstories, but i enjoy, y'know, exciting moments of a character's life where they can tell that scene in such intricate detail that makes you want to be there with them, even if its just a character's backstory. or maybe just a normal backstory, but not boring.

I make my backstories fit the character's personality and also serve a use to the plot. And then I don't dwell on the past unless I need it for the present. So basically I don't really care if it's boring, perfect, horrible, or anything in between, but I definitely have a bias against the tragic backstory.

If I wanted to flesh out the backstory for forever, why am I not writing about that time of their life then? The most interesting stuff happens during the part of their life I'm writing about, so I want the past to be not as interesting.