01.21.10 - Life

Sometimes if can surprise you. In both good and bad ways. One phone call can change everything. But what influences a character before they reach the printed page? How important is the backstory? Does it matter, their life before they appear in a story?

I believe so. While some might not care about breakups, deaths, losses, triumphs of a character's life, I believe it has a distinct effect on who they are when the reader first meets them. Pain. Joy. Sorrow. They're all pieces that create the whole character.

But what part of that background is too much for the reader? At what point does it become too much? Is it really that fine of a line? I suppose I'm going to find out.