Olivia's Guestbook

Olivia,

Just some thoughts.

What I do is write a long, detailed, backstory for each character. All their physical characteristics: height, weight, hair and eye color, clothes sizes, as if you were trying to select Christmas gifts for them. List their family, all parents, brothers, sisters, significant aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. as well as a timeline of the events in their life from birth to the present. Include a sample of their personality, dialogue, and dreams. In other words, write ‘their’ story as completely as you can.

Print it and keep it near your workstation for reference. With all the characters and their characteristics handy, you can write their interactions with each other clearly without mistakes (like which side they part their hair), nail polish (for girls... or for boys for that matter) they use, perfume/cologne choice and so on. It is really embarrassing to start with a blond and end up with a red head by inattention.

And, you can dribble out their background slowly. And, resist the temptation to cut and paste their traits. The backstory is ‘their’ story, not ‘your’ story. Use it only by inference.

Note: If you want to change something, go back to their backstory and change it there first. Make it work in their backstory before you use it in your story.

I have done NaNoWriMo for two years now. It takes me two months to do the backstories for a dozen characters, but it sure speeds the writing of the forestory.

Clint