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“The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting.” —Stephen King
Answer this question about your main character. What is the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to your protagonist?
I guess it was bound to happen…the spam, I mean. Will he plot my next novel for me, I wonder?
Most embarrassing thing? This question is not on my current character-building checklist, but I’ll be adding it right away. Will I answer it right away?
Probably not. I love my checklist, and sometimes I actually use it and answer all the questions on it, but mostly I make up the character’s main backstory, and then decide how that backstory affects my character’s attitudes and behaviors (e.g., fears, joys, body language, etc.).
What helps me really find my character is focusing on his or her voice and how s/he talks. Once I get that part, the character seems to come to life for me, and then s/he fills in the answers to the questions on the checklist…as I’m writing the first draft. It’s magic.
Then, when I’m deepening, I refer to the checklist and fill it in.
Her most embarrassing moment, now that I think about it, has to be the time in public school that she was cast as the Sandman in the musical Hansel and Gretel, and started singing the wrong song, the song another singer had just finished singing…three times! Especially embarrassing because the members of the school board were in the audience that night AND because her twin brother (older by only four minutes but her protector) had encouraged her to try out for the part.
Happy ending to her embarrassment: the school principal came out of the audience after she backed off stage spreading imaginary sleep dust, but finally singing the right song, and sat in the school hallway, crying her eyes out. He told her she was a real trooper, that most people would have run off stage without singing the right song.
IMPACT ON HER NOW: Since that day, she lives by the adage, “If at first you don’t succeed…”–to her detriment, i.e., she doesn’t know when to give up.
I don’t know yet if this embarrassing moment will ever come up in the actual story, i.e., if what happens in the story will give me an opportunity to create a trigger for it, but it’s fun to know about it, and thinking about it has revealed an important element of her character that definitely relates to her behavior during the story.
Wonderful question…I’m off to add it to my checklist.
I loved this question too. Like you, I have a process for getting to know mine. The sound of their voice and how they speak is big for me too. Thanks, Sheryl.
I got rid of the spam comments.
My character, hairdresser Marla Shore, posed for seductive pictures when she needed money for a lawyer after a tragic incident in her past. This secret comes out in Permed to Death, book one in my series…now on sale for $1.99!
I thought I’d gotten rid of them, but must’ve missed something in the process. Ugh.
I hope the right answer is 8…not the best mathematician. 🙂 I like the most embarrassing moment. I always have her worst moment, but I like this, too and they don’t have to be the same thing. And thanks, Nancy. Except I discovered I’d already bought it. 🙂
That’s embarrassing. D’oh.
Hmmm, Juliana Martin prides herself on maintaining a Jack-Reacher level of cool. Well, there was that time when she was an intern with the DA’s office and did a really poor job in a preliminary hearing and there’s still a greasy spot on the courtroom carpet that was the remains of her self-respect after the judge got through with her.
Wait, that’s me.
For my heroine, it would be when things were getting, um, heated with the hero after 200 pages of Mulder-Scully style interplay. She makes a bold move and the ancient bed frame emits a loud rusty screeching sound. It was quite mortifying.
Terri
That is never good. Thanks for sharing, Terri.