Notebook.ai

When Talking to Others About Characters, How Much Should You Tell Them?

@InstaOnly forum 9 comments schedule
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@InstaOnly

My three most important characters, including the villain, have complex backgrounds that go before the protagonist even met their friends. I and some of my friends have gotten around to sharing our stories with each other for critique, but I don't really know how to share it with out taking the time to sketch some visuals or risk spoiling the entire plot I've put together. Especially when it comes to the fact I need critique on them but the past they have doesn't come until later in the story. So my question is, when talking with others about your characters, how much do you tell them and how much do you leave for them to figure out? The only way I could think of so far is just sharing a script with them on docs so they can leave notes while I'm working on it.

@Paperok

If you want to get proper opinions and critiques from them I would say explain the backstories to them all the way.

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@Starfast group

^ Yeah, I would agree to that. I have one character who sounds very similar to what @IOnlyHave1Project is describing. His backstory plays a big role in a plot twist in one of my stories, but it doesn't come into play until much later into the story. I'd obviously like to keep that a secret but it's almost impossible to talk about this character without spoiling that moment because it's such a big part of his character.

If I wanted to talk about this character without mentioning his backstory, it would mean not talking about the first 14 years of his life, which only leaves 4 years to talk about, and those 4 years don't really explain this character and why he is the way he is. Even just a vague summary wouldn't give anyone enough information to form a valid opinion or critique.

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@InstaOnly

Thanks, that's really helpful! Especially knowing someone with a similar character can agree to just outright telling the character backstory.

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@evastardust groupRRAAAARRL
RRAAAARRL

With my close friends, I tell them a lot, and on here I say a lot, but otherwise I don't,

person_off
Deleted user

It kind of depends on what you and they want. If you want a proper critique, you're almost without a doubt going to need to tell them all of it. If you just want some advice on the actual character traits, you might not necessarily need to share it. It also kind of depends on what they want, if you care (lol) - if the backstory is a spoiler, ask if your friends don't mind the story being spoiled - then go ahead. However, if they don't want the story spoiled, then don't spoil it, though this might mean not telling them some/any of the backstory.
For me, the most worrisome thing is the idea that my friends might copy my idea, which is why i personally keep a lot of it under wraps - I may or may not need new friends - but all in all, it's kind of up to you (and sometimes them) what you share with them.

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@InstaOnly

I was kind of thinking about asking them if they wanted the backstory spoiled, since we plan on using one of our free weekends to fully go over our plots and worlds. Hearing it as a suggestion makes me a lot less worried on whether I should or not. Also I totally relate, I am very paranoid about others stealing my ideas, especially since I've spent a while on this project trying to keep it as original as I can. I trust them but I always feel like I mess up explaining even the basics of the plot, though I think asking what they would and wouldn't mind spoiled will really help lol.

person_off
Deleted user

lol yeah you're not alone. heck, you can talk to me if you want! (i won't hear anything more than you want me to lmao).
i'm a lonely potato as the name implies so i spend 90% of my life sitting in my room being bored wondering what to do with my spare time, and for the past year and a half that free time has been spent not writing but making sure what i write will be original.

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@InstaOnly

Same. Though I love this site. My irl friend(one of the ones I'm going to chat about worlds with) showed me this site just before school started and I absolutely love it. I actually talk a lot more about my world here than real life because others are already working on their own projects, making me less worried they're stealing my plot rather then helping me patch some weird plot hole. Actually I talked a ton about the beginning of my plot in this post i made recently:
https://www.notebook.ai/forum/plot-factory/how-can-i-set-off-my-main-plot-may-need-some-help-with-motivations-too
because motivations were really bugging me with the protagonist and people here or so helpful. :D