I was obsessed with Gi Joe toys when I was a kid. One of the things I loved was the file cards on the back of the toy packaging. Each character had a bio with basic information, code name, real name, birthplace, military rank, and specialty. It would also include a character profile and a quote to reveal some aspects of their personality and abilities.
They were fantastic. Like most kids, I didn’t just want the toy, I wanted the file card. I would cut them out and store them in an index box. Giving these toy characters a biography helped change them from generic army men into one of the best-selling toy series of all time.
Some fairly common advice you hear for writers is to create a bio or backstory for your characters. These are details that for the most part don’t explicitly show up in the actual story. But it informs who the character is. Knowing their history and personality can help you to write them so they are true to who they are in a situation rather than have the situation dictate how they act to move the plot along. Meaning if you had Shaggy in Die Hard instead of John McClane, there is no way he’s lighting up a cop car with a machine gun no matter how much that’s going to move your story along.
To be honest, I don’t really write out character sheets or bios for my characters. Though I do think about those things. I have loads of notebooks that I fill with ideas. I found a random Woodland Hills notebook that I had misplaced and forgotten about.
I was surprised to find that I had written a short list of physical and personality traits for Niles, the main character from my Woodland Hills series. What was really interesting though was that I had written a list of things in his bedroom.
Comics are obviously a visual medium and it’s important to think about them that way. A background can be a generic setting or it can tell a story. The things you choose to include and omit can say a lot about the character or the situation they are in.
The artist part of me is grateful to the author part for taking the time to figure out those details of Niles’s bedroom. Give it a shot, and list the attributes of your character’s bedroom (or office, or car). Even if the bedroom doesn’t show up in the story, I think you’ll find it revealing.
Write on.
News
There are no updates with the book offer for Woodland Hills. There’s been some back and forth but nothing has been decided one way or another. This is taking way longer than I would like. I’m ready to move forward or move on.
Family Stuff
River started daycare. It was kind of a tough decision but now that he’s there it definitely feels like the right one. Sophia did a bunch of research to find the right fit and we’re quite happy with where he ended up. His teachers are great with all of the kids, constantly keeping them engaged and cared for. He gets to interact with other kids and not be the center of attention. The meals are home cooked and as a result, he’s less than impressed with meal time at home.
He was understandably clingy the first week but he adapted quickly. When I dropped him off this morning, he didn’t even look back when I said goodbye. The betrayal 🙁 He also got his first daycare cold, ugh.
On a summer note, it’s been hot. Shocking, I know. We discovered Swimply, it’s basically AirBNB for pools. So we rented someone’s pool for a few hours. It was fun though if we did it again, I’d do it with a bigger group to make it worth the cost. We also cooled off at the fountain downtown. That was free, so we’ll definitely be doing that again.
Thanks for reading. See you next month!
-Josh
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