The simple answer is that it’s totally up to you. Because in the long run you’ll revise both so much it won’t matter what you did first.
I have created characters with no back story, threw them in a scene, watched how they reacted, then created a back story for them. Then during a rewrite of that scene, they acted a little differently because of their back story. And they way they acted gave me some ideas for adding depth and texture to their back story. And so on.
And the exact same thing happened when I created a back story for a character before throwing them into a scene.
Filed under: the promethiad, writing
When asked what I do all day; my answer is usually rewrite, rewrite, and rewrite; I am rather new to blogging and in surfing for blogs of interest found yours, will enjoy revisiting often.
Excellent post…
Annie O.
Thank you for your comment. And after looking at your blog, I must say I commend you for taking the time to write down stories that have been passed down to you. I too am interested in genealogy and have filled in as many holes in my family tree as I could. But I don’t have many stories and regret not having collected more of them from my grandparents.
Indeed. Sometimes I THINK I have a complete backstory, but then I write a few chapters and find myself completely rewriting it … and vice-versa. This is definitely a chicken/egg scenario.