(06-03-2015, 02:27 PM)Natalie Mcbeef Wrote: I like to go back in time.
As in I start with a simple concept, and then RP with people to flesh it out. I just make things up as I go along, and eventually that stuff coalesces into a backstory.
For example with Evangeline, all I had at the start was that she was exiled for being a heretic, and she hates tyrants and slavery.
As I RPed more and explored the nuances of those basic things, the details of the backstory sort of arrived. I felt like I knew who Evangeline was, right at the moment I started RPing her, but I wasn't sure how she got there.
Having played her for six months or so I'm now ready to fill in the gaps, and I've been writing snippets of her backstory. I don't think I could ever just whip up a complete and detailed backstory without playing the character for a while and getting a feel for them.
This is what I do, too. I have a concept, I go out and play it, and I add the backstory as I go. If someone asks a backstory-ish question that I don't know the answer to yet, I make one up on the spot. Or more often, I come up with a lie because my characters do that kind of thing, but meanwhile, I write down the truth somewhere else.
I also like to do those "100 questions about your character" things, but only after I've started playing them, so the base concept fills out with history over time. Even my amnesiac character ended up with an extended backstory, and it was fun for him to remember it in bits and pieces over the time I was figuring it out. I definitely don't start from Day 1 with everything already figured out.