Schumi

For all the character profiles I have done, I haven't really talked about family history. I've noted whether the character's parents are still alive, but not much else. I was wondering how others write this information? Do you draw family trees etc? Also, in your profiles, do you go as far back as childhood, and talk about some of the times they had when they were younger etc?

Any advice would be great. Thank you in advance.

Queasy Dillo

Is it relevant?

If you're just throwing lineage in there to fill up the page, then I'd say skip it.

If the family is an integral part of the story, then treat them as you would any other character, with all the detail and developement that entails.

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cbrmale

I don't think you need to go to the extent of a family tree, but in any individuals life, the people they grew up with influence who they are, how they behave and what they believe to a certain degree.

I always deal with immediate family in order to flesh out the multi-dimensional parts of key characters, even if some of those family members may not make it into the final story line. For example, a character with no siblings but a domineering mother and an ambivalent father will behave differently to a orphan who has many older siblings.

The family situation may not be integral to the story, but certainly integral to the character.

Rhea

Well, I have a family tree, but it's just for the immediate family, i.e. father, mother, siblings, neices/nephews/children.

It depends on your story, really. If it's not important you don't have to go into much detail. For me, I do go into my character's early life. (My character is 17, though) And also a bit of background on his parents, but I do that as the parents' background, not the character's parents' background. That's my main character, he's got a pretty detailed life, but it's also important to the storyline. For my other characters it's not detailed.

Schumi

So far, I've written some family background information for 3 of my characters. Two of them are from the same family, and the other is separate. I think I would mostly talk about my main character's family background. I have plenty to go on for this because what happened to her when she was a teenager is very relevant to what is happening to her now. I don't think the other two character's family backgrounds are as important to the story, but I may write small pieces of information if it is needed.

Do you have to include other family members as active characters if you talk about them in relation to a main characters family history?

Any advice on that would be great. Thanks.

socrates

well i never have done a family tree but i am working on a series of stories where the family dating from around 1600-2550 but only key members are mentioned. so you can make refrences if it's a seqaul and the previous one talked about his great great great grandfathers trials i would mention him here and their. but if the storie is only one guy in one book and will have no future items then don't worry about it. family trees are just to hard with a family that spans that long.

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kellykat60409

I usually don't, but in the story that i am writing now the main characters past has a lost to do with what she is going through. So I am drawing a family tree and it is helping greatly in my progress.

AnalisDestiny

I actually like having a bunch of back story to work with, so I usually have a lot of family history. Most of it though never see's the pages of my story, but it helps me gain a better understanding of just who this character is.

I would say a general rule of thumb would be the more they appear in your story, the more you need to know about them.