I'm wondering how in depth I'm supposed to go in my characters' backstories, bc I see people with maybe two or three paragraphs worth of background and here I am writing an essay.
How much is TOO much?
person_off
Deleted user
When you get into detail about their individual experiences that don’t affect them at all.
group
I’d say feel free to go as far as you want. The better you understand your character, the better you can write them. But a backstory doesn’t have to be every detail of their life, just key moments that might have reshaped the way they think or how they act.
We’re all guilty of the “mile-long backstory” thing
I really like them though, because the more you know about a character, the more their actions make sense, and then it gets to a point where you can identify the character's actions as something they would do. Once you reach that point, though, you could stop or keep going. Both are good!