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To me, there are three critical parts to a book. The first half of the first chapter; major characters are introduced, tone and theme are set. If you don't have them hooked halfway through chapter 1, you're screwed and they may not continue. The final chapter, all questions should be answered and give closure unless continuation via sequels. Third; the backstory. No matter where you put it in the book, you eventually should explain why things are the way they are. If it's a series, you can stretch that, just as long as you don't contradict previous information. Never re-write your character's history. It confuses and angers the readers and you lose credibility as a story-teller. Add more to the history, but do not re-write.
I played RPGs and didn't think much of it back then. Dungeons & Dragons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Rifts, Robotech and finally CyberPunk. I believed CyberPunk to be the superior of the ones I played. The reason: characters. Other games had alignment, certain parameters a character class had to adhere to. This was where CyberPunk differed and it was critical. CyberPunk characters were required to have a bit of history. Events in their life. Just like real people, these events shape their lives. All experiences, good and bad, define a person. Makes them do what they do, think the way they think.
Character backstory is a critical component to a story for me. Not just for the reader, but it keeps me on a certain path for my character, even if I'm the only one who knows or understands. That's why I don't mess around with other peoples' characters without their permission and won't post without their approval. I expect the same. Just because you think you have a character nailed down, if they belong to another person, you don't. Keep that in mind. It's also why I don't write fan-fic and do not authorize any. I collaborate with those I believe are right for it. I've enjoyed every writer that I've worked with. And for those wondering what I'm up to; what, you mean you actually WANT me to tell?*smirk*
Comments
Characters are the lifeblood of any good story
If they are not someone we can relate to, we tend to ignore them as being insignificant.
Be that right or wrong it is something that we as writers have to be careful with.
I try to make my characters real and have a believable backstory. Sometimes the backstory comes out in the main story but in others it does not. Even if it does not the picture that you the author have built up in your mind helps make the character more rounded and believable in the story that you are trying to weave.
Now for an admission...
Sometimes I spend so much time developing the character and their backstory I lose track of what I intended to write. My Laptop has literally dozens of unfinished stories where many of them are that way because I literally 'lost the plot'.
That's life.
Samantha
I hear you
I hear you on that. I'd do that myself, but I figured out how not to get so distracted. I set chapter objectives before I start writing any of them. Keeps me on track.
quidquid sum ego, et omnia mea semper; Ego me.
alecia Snowfall
Why not built a table of the
Why not built a table of the characters and their backgrounds out of those unfinished stories? That way you can start a story and pull out characters already 'ready to go'. You'll get use out of all that detailed work, and it'll help you from getting lost again.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Far too cold and clinical for me
Part of the fun of writing for me is how the characters evolve in my mind as the story progresses.
I know that some professional writers do all this stuff before they start the main prose but after a lifetime working in IT and most of that writing software where precision was the key, the freedom I feel for how I develop characters is a large part of my enjoyment.
Even with a lot of those dead end stories, I had fun writing them. Sometimes my muse took me and the story in a direction that I didn't envisage when I started. Just part of life's rich tapestry.
Samantha
I agree with your comments
More times than I can count, I have hit the back button half way through a story because it just did not click. Once in a while I have read a subsequent chapter and gone back, but not often. Personally I like subtle introduction of the back story. A tid bit here, a tid bit there. You do a great job with your characters, I still have questions about the major in the LK stories, but he is supposed to be a bit of a mystery.
It is fun to look forward to the next chapter to see what develops. I hate bland predictability. ( what would Alfred Hitchcock have done with the first Jurassic Park?)
I am looking forward to your next story.
Debra
The Nightmare Rider
I have read, and liked most of what you have published here, but in my opinion, "The Nightmare Rider" is your best work.
Gwen