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Character backstories are phenomenally important to my writing. If you think about it, we all have some sort of a “backstory” that makes us make decisions and defines who we are. To use a personal example, I really love to try new stuff, and it’s probably because I’m the youngest of six kids and younger siblings will do literally anything to be original.

Something that really bugs me, though are backstories that have no impact on the character, ie:

Skyelarr’s parents were murdered before her eyes when she was five. Buuuuut instead of having serious emotional and mental trauma and being a little…off because of it, she’s your average fifteen year old assassin with a sharp wit who likes playing practical jokes.

One of two things needs to be fixed here, either:

– The reprocussions of her parent’s deaths need to be more apparent in her mind and actions. Something like mEnTaL pRoBlEmS because I think people underestimate psychological trauma, to be honest.

– Or she just needs to have a backstory that matches her current state. Maybe she’s a smart mouth assassin because she was raised by a vigilante father and a comedian mother.

Breaking news: characters can have parents. Breaking news: characters can have friends. Breaking news: characters can have a past that has shaped them into who they are (and it really doesn’t have to be dark all the time).

I think I’m now officially off-topic into vacuum characters.

tl;dr: Backstories are important, but they have to actually do something for the character.