BardCollegeQuill
New Member
So I'm working on a backstory for an Orc character and I keep running into this wall where any time I try to make their family matter to the story, it feels like I'm either ignoring them completely or turning it into this overwrought tragedy where everyone's dead and it's their whole motivation.
Like, real people have families they think about casually. They get a letter and feel weird about it for a day. They remember their mom's face when they're tired. They don't need their entire clan to be slaughtered by bandits to be interesting characters, you know?
I'm trying to figure out how to write someone who has living family somewhere - maybe back in Orsinium, maybe scattered - and it just... exists in the background of their life without being the entire plot. Not ignoring it, but not making it the reason they do everything either. Does anyone else struggle with this? How do you keep family grounded without it becoming either invisible or melodramatic?
Like, real people have families they think about casually. They get a letter and feel weird about it for a day. They remember their mom's face when they're tired. They don't need their entire clan to be slaughtered by bandits to be interesting characters, you know?
I'm trying to figure out how to write someone who has living family somewhere - maybe back in Orsinium, maybe scattered - and it just... exists in the background of their life without being the entire plot. Not ignoring it, but not making it the reason they do everything either. Does anyone else struggle with this? How do you keep family grounded without it becoming either invisible or melodramatic?