When making OCs and their backstory just....

[kisa]

@Chocopyro
Yeah... Other than the whole starting with a preset character type... I usually draw until I have a character I like and then their personality develops from there. (Which is why I have a billion characters I never use. Lots of pretty pictures though.)

Although... If I ponder it, I probably do start with archetypes...
Like... I have a classic emo vampire character... He's old-fashioned, polite and almost never changes expression, he also dresses in a long black coat and has a very plain haircut...
... as I was developing him, mid-rp... he flips out a smartphone and tells the lady he's with to call her parents to tell them where she is.
... The action itself is within his character... But, the fact that he has a new phone and understands how to use it seemed to astound the person I was RPing with. X'D

[Rossfellow]

Backstory? I can't say I feel that, as my characters tend to not worry about their own past. They're too busy being traumatized in present time.

*cracks plot whip*

[kisa]

Backstory? I can't say I feel that, as my characters tend to not worry about their own past. They're too busy being traumatized in present time.

*cracks plot whip*

Well~
You sound like someone who writes fabulous things then.

[Meneil]

When I was younger I used to worry about having too dark backstories or present events.

Now I've accepted my sadism and just accepted that it's probably part of being a writer ^^ Although if -everyone- has some dark depressing stuff, I usually find it's too heavy, so I try to limit it to 1-2 characters (usually the main character).

[Akitsuki]

Backstory? I can't say I feel that, as my characters tend to not worry about their own past. They're too busy being traumatized in present time.

*cracks plot whip*

LOL I do that too. While sometimes I make a character with a quite dark background, I prefer to show bitter conflicts throughout the story. Because if it's in the past, the character had gotten away from it and you can say he's okay for now, aside from the misery he had experienced. Though you can show it again during the story, but I prefer new troubles LOL.

I like to make a character who's used to live a normal life, but because of a certain problem, he gets dragged into something he wouldn't think of which he considers as hell. That way, maybe the readers will be able to understand how unlucky he is and sympathize him more. Well... That just popped out of my mind. I never aim for that actually LOL.

[Desu_Cake]

I find that backstories are really only important in terms of how they effect the character right now. Always concentrate on the now when you're writing, it makes these things much easier. Think about how the events in their past influence their personality, their goals, their hopes, their fears, how it might influence other characters. Remember that it's okay not to give them long, complicated backstories, -Luke Skywalker grew up on a farm- what they go though during the story itself is more important.

[Mirrowdothack]

For me, this happens all the time.
Some of my characters really scare me ... and I still wonder how and why the fu** my mind had created them.
There are other characters I just wanna hug and say "I sooo sorry for doing this to you" T^T
and others just drive me crazy:

For example: In one of my stories there is this badass, cool woman, who I totally love. And one day "we had a "conversation" and she "told" me: 'Btw: I am the hated antagonist-witch-lady who is causing your heros so much pain ^^v' " - And I just hated her for this XD (no, I still "love" her lol)

I think it's pretty cool if you have some kind of "conversation" with your charas. And if you would love all your character, because they are nice, gentle, handsome, and all-good, ... then there is a high chance that all your OCs are mainly the same, and wouldn't that be terrible boring?
I love to listen to their stories~

[Holland]

O hello there, old thread.

I find it frustratingly unrealistic when all the characters in a story (especially when it's a modern day slife, gah) have some deep dark angsty past, but I'm guilty of giving a lot of characters more grim backgrounds. I usually don't notice how bad it is until I really step back from the writing and absorb what the heck they really went through. I also don't hold back when it comes to the consequences of war. I think that scars make a character and that having them realistically affected (mentally and physically) by what they go through--especially in a way that the reader always sees--leaves the battles and politics to be taken seriously instead of brushed over.

But it can be overdone in more surreal works too. There was one story I wrote where the female lead just went through... Yeah. It's kind of gross looking back on it. She started out as a beautiful princess of a dilapidated kingdom; by the final battle of the story, she was horribly disfigured but exceptionally powerful. Equivalent exchange. Unfortunately, her enemy (<- our narrator and the antagonist) was still stronger ;| At least she tried... though her attempts are kind of pathetic from the point of view of our unreliable narrator~ :3

Like Mirrow said, there's a bigger impact when you talk with the characters as well. The above story was actually a script for a play, so there were also a ton of monologues where the character is basically talking to the audience. That gave me a lot of insight into how they were feeling, which in turn made what they've been through harder to swallow as they broke down.

Edit: Immature mode activated. Woot my 69th post!! ;D