As in all things within the art of roleplay, the process of creating a character backstory and background is incredibly subjective and unique to every writer. Some develop a rich and intricate backstory before coming up with any other facet of their character, others come up with the basics of building a character – name, age, faceclaim, personality – and then just start roleplaying to see what comes to light naturally. Plenty of newer writers don’t bother with backstories at all and are content to just play out scenes and let the personality and interactions carry the roleplay. None of these styles of development are wrong, of course, but if you are someone who wants a little help or advice when it comes do creating or developing your character’s background and backstory, here are some tips or processes to aid you. If you are someone new to writing, roleplaying, or character development, fret not, for this article will cover the basics as well as more advanced stages of the process.
“What is a character backstory?” Well, in the most simple yet broad terms, it is a collection of circumstances and events that make up the life experiences of a character. After all, the platonic ideal for a living, breathing character is to have them be believed as if they were a real and true human being in the eyes of readers or, in this case, roleplay partners. This includes everything from the simplest and most basic details of their life – where they were born or grew up, what culture they come from, who their parents or ancestors were – all the way up to events in their lives up to the moments just before you start writing them in a scene.
“Are all of those details really necessary when thinking of a new character or developing their backstory?” No, of course not. As mentioned, plenty of writers choose to forego some or all of these considerations when creating a character. However, for many, the more of these details that are thought about and fleshed out in the creative process, the more you have to go on when writing their thoughts, when putting them in a scene or pairing, or when choosing other important details that impact what you do with that character. Don’t be afraid to flesh out the basics and then see what happens as you get in the shoes of your character.
“Well, sometimes less is more! I want to write a mysterious character!” Okay, yes, sometimes less is more. However, the point of writing a mysterious, mystical character of dubious origins is for the reader or your partner to find them interesting and want to know more – not so that you don’t have to put any work into the character and don’t know anything about them yourself. It’s true that, as stated above, you can learn and develop as you go, but it is a much nicer and more fun experience for everyone when you’ve come up with some kind of basic plan or idea as to how or what you want to revel about the character you’ve shrouded in a haze of mystery.
“Fine, fine. Then tell me how I can create and develop a backstory for my character.” There is no set in stone way to accomplish this but there are plenty of tips, processes or exercises that can help writers along. Below will be some of those with, hopefully, enough variation to help roleplayers or character-creators of different types and creeds.
“What are some aspects of characters and roleplay that can be influenced by a backstory?” The amount of things that can be influenced by a character’s background are nearly limitless, but there are some that are more obvious and prevalent than others.
What job or occupation they might have or be pursuing
The type, quality or amount of education they have
How comfortable or hard their financial situation and life are
Connections they have – family, friends, past lovers, future lovers
Their interests or hobbies and how much time they have to explore them
How mature they are as a person and their personality (more on that later)
How those around them might view them or their family
“Where do I start?” Every writer has their own process for how the begin to build a character in general. Some have a rigid and defined idea of what kind of character they want to play or what personality they want them to have, often spurred on by making that character for a specific purpose or plot/pairing. Others start with a face, a name, a few quirks or traits and build up from there. Again, all these are valid starting points but for the sake of conversation and how it applies to developing a character backstory, there will be a list of a few places to start and how it can kickstart the whole process.
Do you have a faceclaim in mind? This can be a great starting point to get a head start on your character’s backstory and it can also help you come up names, decide on an age, help out with out facets of character creation that writers often get stuck on. Even if all you have are the photos of the model, celebrity or musician you’d like to use along with their name, there is a lot to work with. Since there are articles about basic character creation, let’s skip those facets and dive into the more backstory-enriching aspects a faceclaim can brng to light.
Name: While this may sound like one of the most basic aspects of character creation, it actually goes deeper than that and can influence backstories and background information that can be used to build something more interesting than just any name. Look at the faceclaim and their name, perhaps look up where they’re from originally. Maybe there’s something there that can provide a bit of insight. For instance, you may notice your chosen male model faceclaim has an incredibly Welsh name and is actually from Wales. While your character doesn’t have to have a Welsh name or be from Wales, or of Welsh descent at all, you may choose to take inspiration and go that route. A simple choice like giving your character a specific heritage or ancestry can lend a lot to their potential backstory.
Race, Ancestry, Nationality & Heritage: On the subject of names from certain heritages or ancestry, the faceclaim you chose for your character can be a good way to decide things like where they’re from, how much their family embraces or rejects that background, how your character feels about that and how others might treat them because of it. Is your character the bog-standard, all-American suburbanite? Or are they another race who may have experienced some prejudice in their life? Are they an immigrant or from an immigrant family? Perhaps they’re from another country altogether and that’s where your story takes place. Maybe they are that basic American family but are descended from settles of one variety or another, and are either proud of it or ashamed of their family’s past. Like with the name and all other things, this is all completely up to you to incorporate or ignore altogether. Don’t feel pressured into making your character fit into the exact feel you get from their faceclaim.
Family: While not directly related to the faceclaim, it follows the logic we’ve laid out so far. If you’ve had some ideas about a name, that may have led you to ideas about a heritage, which could not lead you to thinking about their family. Even outside of writing and character development, all families are different and vary greatly, but aspects of what family means or doesn’t mean inside of a given culture or heritage can give you a head start on developing your character’s immediate family and the customs or relationships therein. For instance, maybe you’ve decided that your character is of Latin heritage and grew up in a Mexican-American household. You could stop there, or you could think about and research some common traditions or family dynamics that your character could’ve experienced growing up. Religious views, holiday traditions, how much they hold to older cultural values or try to embrace new ones. Are their parents still together? Do they have brothers and sisters? Is it a tight, big family unit or a fractured one? Maybe think about some of that and give names and depth to some members of the family that are important to your character.
Lifestyle: One of the biggest things your character’s faceclaim can tell you about their background is their lifestyle and the culture they surround themselves with. If they have tattoo, is it a sign that they’re some sort of musician, or are they a rough and tought type who might be involved in a less than virtuous lifestyle? Perhaps it’s neither and they’re just a very artistic and expressive person and even mold their life and career around that? If they’re commonly seen looking suave in suits or ballgowns, are they a businessman or woman, a politician, or perhaps they’re using expensive tastes to accommodate for something or put out a certain image? Do they come off as organized or messy? Once you think about some of these things your character’s faceclaim might tell you, think about how or why they may have turned out that way. Did they have strict parents who forced them to become neat and tidy or were they left to their own devices? Did they grow up in a rough neighborhood and thus end swallowed in the same cycle or were they brought into the family business to one day take it over?
Coming up with a backstory for your character is all about taking small details and making connections or letting those details be the spark to ignite that character’s muse. Roleplayers use faceclaims because it’s an easy way to express what your character looks like, but as they saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Before you let those photos speak to other people, let them speak to you. Look at them, think of the reason you wanted this character and wanted to use this faceclaim in the first place, and once the ideas start connecting and flowing, they’ll keep going. Before you even get to work on the bulk of the character, you’ll have a lot to work with. Some may become the backbone of your idea, plenty will likely get left on the cutting-room floor.
“Okay, and what if I don’t use faceclaims?” Fear not! Whether you use drawn/animated references instead, or don’t use any reference at all, the process remains largely the same. Everyone has their preferences in that department. If you use animated references for characters, you can employ similar methods as those mentioned above, you just have to be a bit more creative with your logical leaps and small detail connections. If you use no references at all, well, more than likely you are someone with a fairly healthy imagination and don’t need to rely on picking apart those small details to form a backstory or basic details for your character. Hopefully, you have a pretty good idea of how you want your character to look and act, which should lead you down the same roads as above.
Starting from scratch: If you don’t like the idea of taking inspiration from faceclaims or using those small details, the process honestly remains much the same. Assuming you have already built the basic outline of your character or done some basic development, those details and characteristics can be the spark to light your muse up and start finding little bits of backstory to build on and expand. Think of the reason you wanted to make this character, what makes them who they are, what you want to do with them. Now, go through the same steps as above. Here are some questions to ask yourself about your character. Better yet, ask your character. Once details start to connect and threads start to be made, details will begin to flow.
Where are they from? Do they feel like an outsider? Do they have an affinity for their home? Is their heritage or ancestry important to them? Was there a religious influence in their upbringing? An idealogical or cultural influence in their family that’s unusual?
Is family important to them? Did they have a big family, a small one? Are their parents together? Were they close to one parent, both, neither? If they have siblings, how close in age were they and how did they get along?
What kind of environment did they grow up in; big city, small town, sheltered suburbs, wrong side of the tracks, hippie commune? Did they face prejudice or hardship for one reason or another? Did they have many friends? Were they an outcast, a socialite, an athlete? What made their upbringing different or similar to anyone else who was around?
Are they wild or violent, if so has that been a problem for them? Do they do drugs, drink, smoke – how did they start, was it ever a problem, what was the culture around those subjects in their family or group of friends?
How did they do in school? Did they finish high school? Did they want to go to college, did they, and did they finish? What were they good at, what did they go for, did their teachers like them? If they went to college, did they have to work to pay for it or did their parents or a scholarship pay for it?
What was their first job? What’s their dream job and why? What are their passions and how did they get exposed to them? What are their hobbies or pastimes?
Create basic characters out of the people important to your character: As mentioned a bit earlier, taking some of the people in your character’s life and turning them into simple characters of their own can greatly help come up with ideas for your character’s backstory. Their mother, father, brother, sister, best friend, ex-lover, boss. Anyone who has had a big impact on your character’s life can be a good study to try and learn why. It doesn’t have to be a deep and rich character, just the basic details. Enough to be able to let little scenes between them play out in your head. Perhaps that character will become someone you enjoy playing and can be added as a main character, maybe they just appear as a member of the background cast in a story. Seeing how the character you’re attempting to develop a backstory for interacts with those people that they care about can be a great way to explore their past.
Personality & Nature v Nurture: Clearly personality is more of a basic feature of character building and development but it can greatly assist when thinking about your character’s background and uprbringing. This is not a note on the psychological theory of nature v nurture itself but rather how the basic concept can help you analyse your character’s personality or the personality you want them to have and use the information to flesh out their backstory. Specifically, it may be a good idea to look at how much of their personality was influenced by elements of their family, where they grew up, the like, and how much of it is just how they’re wired. For example, let’s say your character is a bit of the rough and tough, quiet, broody sort. How much of those characteristics come just straight from their brain chemistry and how much comes from the way they were raised? Perhaps they were always a bit of a quiet kid but because of the rough area they grew up in, they had to learn to defend themselves and gained a reputation for it. Alternatively, maybe they were just always a troublemaker who liked to pick fights and get into trouble, but they were raised by their verbally abusive mother who always found something wrong in everything they said at home, so they just learned to keep their mouth shut? Basically, take the elements you’ve already figured out about your character’s personality or the ones you want to work in, then figure out why they are that way. Use them to your advantage.
Closing thoughts: Ideally, this collection of thoughts and ramblings will have helped you to do a little development of your character’s background and backstory, whether you’re a writer looking to get their start in the wonderful world of roleplay, or you’re a seasoned writer who just needed a little guidance on one very specific and complex facet of the artform. Other articles on the more niche parts of the process are sure to come and there are plenty of great articles up on RP101 to meet your other needs!