Don't write Bios... Write STORIES!

[BlueBard]

Y'know... folks don't really want to read bios.  They want stories.  A plot that unfolds with narration and dialogue and engages the reader's interest and imagination.

Forgive me if this seems to be a harsh statement.  But it's true.  And it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine.

Imagine that you want to tell someone about something important that happened in your life.  Let's just suppose that you saved your kid brother from drowning.

"I once saved my brother's life," you say.

"Really?  What happened?" your listener wants to know. 

"He fell in a pool.  I pulled him out.  They took him to the hospital.  He was okay after that," you report.

Is that what they really want to hear?  Just the facts?  What they really want is the story.  They want to be able to picture it as if they had been standing in your shoes when it happened.

Bios are like the program descriptions in TV guides.  They summarize the story.  But nobody reads the TV Guide instead of watching TV.  People watch the program because they want to see the story unfold.

Bios remove the emotional involvement that every storyteller should want from his listeners/readers.  It's just a spewing of facts, however well written.  Bios are not stories.

Sure, Marvel does it.  They publish bios of their characters.  But think about it for a sec.  Those bios are based on actual stories already published in the comic books.  And how many complaints do they get from their fans when they retroactively change some long-established detail of the character's life?

By all means have a bio for each of your characters, but you ought to keep them to yourself or at least share sparingly with only a select few.  If for no other reason than that you might want or need to change the character's backstory in the course of writing.  You might even wish to hold back some surprises in order to keep interest in your character's story alive.

And why else do you want to share your bios with others except that you have a story that you want to tell?  Don't you already have a story in mind?  So tell the story already, and forget about publishing bios!

You have a story to tell... so tell it.  Tell it like I was sitting right there hanging on your every word.  Tell it in such a way that you leave me wanting to hear more.

Going back to my TV Guide example...  Do you know why they keep the program descriptions short?  Because long explanations are boring.  A long bio is just like a long explanation.  But a good story doesn't bore anybody.

So... Tell. The. Story.

[BWPS]

I wrote a story that had lots of descriptions and stuff and nobody commented. I'm never writing* again!




*used loosely.

[Cdub]

Yes, but you got 50 views, one of them being me.  :thumbup:

[Failed_Hero]

I have been writing bio's in order to setup and larger story.  I think that people need some description of what they are getting into, if they like a character's bio and intro they will probably like the story.

[Glitch Girl]

Actually, most of the time I find the bios are more of a turnoff than an incentive to read the story.

Most of the time when I see these bios, and it's mainly on some other sites, it'd done by people who think they have a really cool character but don't really care about any kind of story.  It's "Look at this cool character I made!  Isn't it cool!   Look at all the cool stuff he/she can do! Doesn't it just reek coolness?"  It's like reading a bunch of stats many of which you can check off on a checklist.  Tragic background?  Check.  Life changing incident?  Check. Cool powers?  Check...

Okay, I guess I am a little cynical about bios, after reading one bad bio on an unfinished project too many.   They just seem to be the lazy way out of storytelling.

At this point, unless I'm reading up on a character I may be playing in a game, I don't care about the bio.  I want the STORY, the real meat of the character.  Even Bob Smith the middleaged janitor can be a fascinating character with the right situation.  His bio would still be dull, but the magic is in the interaction, the conflict, the action itself. 

You know, this gives me an idea for a fiction challenge.

[Gremlin]

Well, bios and stories serve different functions.  I've posted bios for input.  Sometimes I'm not sure about certain aspects of the character or want some additional ideas.  Stories are more of a finished project, biographies a work in progress.  They're not a replacement for stories by any means, of course not, but who said that they were?

[Mr. Hamrick]

You know, this gives me an idea for a fiction challenge.

I generally get scared with Glitchie gets ideas for Fiction challenges.

On another note, and one more related to the topic, the problem with writing bios (I have found) is that if they are written too early then the incentive is lost to actually WRITE it.  A character description is one thing to do for a script (and even though bog me down occasionally) but it is NOT needed for a story. 

The only use I can think of posting a bio is if you are putting a character out there for others to write a story with.  And that should only be done after you do one with the character yourself.  Unless you are just throwing the character out there with no intention of writing.  Then what's the point.

[BlueBard]

I have been writing bio's in order to setup and larger story.  I think that people need some description of what they are getting into, if they like a character's bio and intro they will probably like the story.

I'm not specifically picking on you... other folks do it, too.  That's why my rant doesn't appear in your thread, FH.

A bio does not draw in readership.  If anything, it's going to turn off more readers than it attracts.  There's no sense of the hero's (or villain's) personality.  So I can read a bio and make a snap decision about whether the character is interesting or not.  That's almost certainly what you do not want as a writer.

That said, they are a useful tool for the writer.  They can help a writer stay consistent with their characterization and details.  And notice that I did not say "don't share them".  I said, "don't publish them".  There is a difference.  If you want feedback on a certain character's bio, you specifically ask people whose opinions you trust.  You don't throw it out there for everyone to judge.

What you may want to use to draw in readers, once the story is done, is to write a brief synopsis (or blurb) about the story.  Think back cover of a novel.

[BlueBard]

Just to illustrate the importance of finished stories...

A long, long time ago in a post far, far away... well, no, here actually... I posted a fan fic story I had been working on.  "The Too-Hot-Tot".  It wasn't a bio.  Did it have Characterization?  Check!  Were the characters interesting?  I think so.  Was it entertaining?  I think it was shaping up that way.

But is it finished?  No.

I made the mistake of having a great idea but didn't plan out how it was going to end.  I posted a work-in-progress, but I didn't have a climax in mind that I was working toward.  I was relying on inspiration to strike.  It didn't.  I got stuck.

At this point, I doubt anyone cares if I ever finish it.  I'm not even sure I care.

That's a sad fate for any story.

[Previsionary]

Just to weigh in, I will admit I barely read bios because I feel if I know everything about a character right away, I won't care to read the story. Unless the bio mentions something SUPER interesting or a storyline I may want to read, there's no point, imo, in checking out a story if everything is perfectly laid out for you in a few simple paragraphs. A bio is fine to keep the writer in check, but it kinda hinders the readers since there's no longer any incentive to find out what the character can pull off. I can say I've rarely picked up a book or comic to read based on a bio.