A Character's Cultural Background and Lifestyle
Creating a History for Fictional Characters
Nov 5, 2009
Developing a character’s background and culture is imperative to constructing a realistic subject a reader can become conventional with — without an understanding of a character’s past experiences, the reader will lose interest. A character’s past experiences define who they are during the present; if you want to illustrate a change in the individual or simply display his or her typical tendencies, creating this past experience is vital to advancing the story’s plot and pace as well as provide an understanding of the individual.
Types of Lifestyles and Habits
Habitual responses and natural customs can be portrayed by simply categorizing your character a particular mannerism. Their lifestyle or habits connote who they are and how they will genuinely handle different approaches. A character’s habits and tendencies are customarily influenced by their culture, belief, or former community. Here are a few examples of different lifestyles and how they associate with habit and personality:
- The Traveler: A traveler would categorically act indifferently towards a conformed person that lives amongst a society. Rather than having a specified experience with one particular culture, a traveler would be accustomed to different varieties — which would give the character a rather unique individuality. The traveler would typically handle situations in his or her own discretion without regard to social standards.
- The Nobleman: A noble figure acts with charm and is usually inexperienced in untamed or wild surroundings. The nobleman is rather more accustomed to society and deals well under conformed conditions and situations. The nobleman would typically attempt to solve problems through diplomacy.
- The Careless One: The careless can be either a discourteous individual who knowingly contravenes or subverts against the accepted standards of society, or they can simply be someone who is careless in an ignorant and incompetent manner. Like the Traveler figure, the Careless will act indifferent, however in an intentional manner rather than natural.
- The Hero: The hero is your typical selfless individual who seems righteous in just about every way possible. A hero can also be divided into many different subcategories; such as the lawful good hero who brings justice through law, or an unlawful hero who protects something, someone, or a group of people by his or her own standards (much like Robin Hood). A hero is either seen as a martyr and or a leader; either way, the hero’s tendencies often are based upon righteous and selfless acts.
Those are a few conceptual lifestyles that would define a character’s tendencies and habits — you generally wouldn’t see a hero intentionally harming a community or people, and you won’t see a nobleman hiding in bushes awaiting to ambush someone. Categorizing your characters under one of the many different personalities or lifestyle would improve the overall quality of your characters greatly.
Understanding a Character’s Accustomed Life
Whenever a character is raised or fostered in a specific environment, they become accustomed to their conventionality and surroundings. Understanding your character’s customary living habits would also help determine their responses towards various scenarios. A man raised by a family and isolated from society would act discordantly if all of a sudden left alone in the wild or in a large city. A girl born in a forest isolated community would have difficulty in understanding social courtesies if she were relocated to a noble household. The isolated forest girl would also have difficulty adapting to the different foods; just like the family-oriented man would if forced to hunt and eat wild animals. Understanding a character’s accustomed lifestyles would help the you advance the plot with surprisingly greater ease.
Former Culture or Community
Formulating a culture is also a great way to give your character certain habits and tendencies. If the character was from a farming culture, then most of his competence and actions would be based upon what the individual learned from that certain occupation. If the character had no family and was born under a hostile community, then their experience and tendencies would be portrayed in a cautious and mistrustful manner. The greatest fictional stories have steadily constructed communities or at least used an existing community to define the character’s cultural behaviors.
When writing a fictional book, you want to make your character seem as realistic as possible. Setting a unique and personal occupational and cultural background will undoubtedly give your character’s the lifelike appearance and creative feel a reader regards for any fictional world or literature.
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