Just realized I was overthinking character backstories

Used to write 10 page bios for every side character. Like a whole spreadsheet with their favorite color and childhood pet. Then I read a short story by Stephen King in 2019 where he described a character in two lines and I knew everything about them. Now I stick to three key details max and let the story do the work. Has anyone else cut way back on planning?

3 comments

3 Comments

grace50812d agoMost Upvoted

The 2019 King story you mentioned really clicked something for me too. I remember reading about a character who had a nervous habit of cracking their knuckles and it told me more about them than a whole biography could. Now I just pick one weird detail per character and build the story around how that detail comes up in different situations. Like if a character always carries a specific book, I don't need to know why they love it, I just need to show them using it in a tense moment. It frees up so much mental space for actual plot and dialogue.

ray80112d ago

Yeah exactly. Once you dial in that one specific thing, the rest of the character just falls into place. I had a guy who always straightened his desk before answering the phone. Told you he was obsessive without me ever saying it. His whole arc ended up being about learning to let little messes slide. That one habit carried the whole theme. It's like a shortcut to showing someone's core conflict without writing a paragraph about their childhood.

nancy47512d ago

Three knuckle clicks per page and I'm sold. My characters just get a weird snack obsession because I can't stop thinking about chips while I write.