Screenwriting : Character Bios by Trey Wickwire

I stopped doing bios years ago. I found them tedious, and they never seemed to inform the actual script. I'm sure they work for a lot of writers, though. Maybe my characters would be better if I could find the patience for it. I tend to start with story and then develop only the biographical details I need to create the right character(s) for that story.

I half agree with Kerry. I think character bios can be very helpful but only if you're asking questions that can actually shape and inform and brainstorm your story. For instance, knowing what your characters fave color is probably doesn't mean anything. But asking what your characters instinctual response to conflict is could help shape the action/plot/arc in the story. ask important questions that have story and plot consequences and not just "get to know you" consequences.

Agreed. That's why all my bios are different from project to project, each is tailored to the story. Also, many people are scared of bios, they see them as a blank page that must be filled. At the beginning of a project my bios include name and a few details that readily come to mind. After the project starts the bios grow and become their own thing. One reason I find bios fairly easy is that I grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons so dreaming up a past life for a character isn't all that new to me.

I know others find character bios to be very helpful, but personally, I find them to be unnecessary busy work. Something born in academia, like writing class exercises. I prefer to work things out in my head. I ruminate on characters for quite some time in terms of my story before I write anything. So much so, I feel like I know them and can picture them clearly. My life is pretty chaotic, so when I'm able to sit down and write I'd rather spend that precious time on the script. :)

Sounds like you're doing character bios, just not putting them on paper. The result is the same though, well rounded and thought out characters.

Thanks, Danny, I'm half flattered. (And half filled with impotent, seething rage. Watch your back.)

I wonder how much this just maps to who we are all personally. I know that even in life I rarely chat people up, find out their history, etc. (Not proud of that... it's just something I know about myself.) However, I'm very good at reading social dynamics, intuiting what people are thinking, what context might have informed their reaction to something... My wife talks to everybody and knows way more about our friends than I do, but I'm usually the one explaining to her why Joe got pissed off at Jane when Jimmy said whatever. In my current script, I know that my main character's backstory involves a breakdown she had after her mother died and she was overwhelmed by the challenges of parenting a special needs child. But honestly, I've never played out in my head the exact details of that breakdown. Which may have you thinking, "poor fool, he'd have so much more to work with if he sketched in the details of that backstory scene." But I've learned enough about my writing process to feel like I know what I need to know. In my head this character lives in three full dimensions. I know how she'd react to getting hit by a fly ball at a baseball game, or waiting in a long line at the ice cream shop (even though I couldn't tell you her favorite flavor). Maybe I'm revealing a limitation in my writing, but for character I rely primarily on intuition.

Kerry, I understand what you're saying... It does map into our personalities. How we take in the world is often how we create it in writing. I'm similar. I really don't care for chit chat either. I tend to pick up the sense of a person very quickly, sense larger social dynamics or just vibes between people. Perhaps we're just better at picking up nonverbal cues and reading a situation. Anyway, I have always trusted my gut, my instincts, my intuition -- whatever one calls it. I trust the ebb and flow of art. I like to have a loose outline and discover elements as I go. I understand what you mean by characters living in your head three dimensionally. I don't need things to be so buttoned up to just '"know" my characters or sense of a story.

My character bios are always a result of serving the story or the purpose of entertainment. They aren't so much characters as souls. Detailed bios (especially physical ones) feel like homework to me and potentially constraining or limited.

Wonderful way of capturing the point, CJ. "They aren't so much characters as souls." Love it.

Here's my number one rule in writing. If it works for you, its right for you. That is for character bios as well all other aspects. And to be honest, everyone does a character bio, they just don't always write them down. I like writing mine down and it helps me keep track of characters from multiple projects. They are especially good for those projects that pop into your head while your working on different project. I have several back burner projects that are just waiting for me to have time to get to them. The bios for those are usually just generalizations but they help me remember what that great idea I had 6 months ago was.

Try the "bone structure" character bio template found in Lajos Egri's book "The Art of Dramatic Writing."

Pretty good list of particulars. http://www.nwoscreenwriters.com/uploads/2/0/6/2/20621660/egri.pdf

I took a class a couple of years ago and we worked from a book called, "Screenplay Writing The Picture" by Robin U. Russin and William Missouri Downs. They've got a nice, brief character worksheet that involves things like desire vs. need, internal conflict, dominant trait, dominant emotion, ect. I've found it to be useful. I've also added deep dark secret to the list: what does my character not want anyone to ever know about them.

...Confess it, you've been trolling us the whole time, haven't you?

I don't bother with character bios. Write the story! Your characters will inform you.

Pj, that's great, I thought I was the only one who felt that way. For me, character bios are slightly above espn.com in terms of Writing Avoidance Strategies. Does it really matter if Hannibal Lecter drinks Diet Coke, Jolt Cola or Lemonade? All that matters is what's in the scene. The rest is up to the audience's imagination - the writer doesn't have to know these details any more than they do.