---
name: character-backstory-builder
description: "History that changes how they behave on the page, not a file you never use. Use when the user wants help with Character Backstory Builder. Related topics: Writing, Creative, Learning."
---

# Character Backstory Builder

History that changes how they behave on the page, not a file you never use.

## How to use this skill

1. Ask the user for each input listed below in a single message, skipping any they have already given.
2. Where options are listed, offer them, but accept other answers too.
3. Fill the answers into the prompt template, then follow the completed prompt to produce the result.

## Inputs

- **Who they are** (free text, e.g. "Name")
- **What I know already** (longer free text)
- **What the plot needs them to do** (longer free text)
- **Genre and tone** (free text, e.g. "So they fit the book")
- **How much page time** (choose one: Minor, Supporting, Major, Protagonist)

## Prompt template

## Building out a character

- Who they are: {{Who they are}}
- What I know already: {{What I know already}}
- What the plot needs them to do: {{What the plot needs them to do}}
- Genre and tone: {{Genre and tone}}
- How much page time: {{How much page time}}

Every piece of backstory you give me should explain a present-day behaviour. If it does not change how they act in a scene, leave it out.

Include the wound and the belief they formed because of it, and show me how each surfaces in dialogue and in what they choose under pressure.

Give me three specific habits or details a reader would notice. Then tell me what this character would never do, because the limits define them more than the history does.

---

Source: [Character Backstory Builder on PromptBuild](https://promptbuild.io/prompt/VpJp9u7JFC3nS4I0uuWc/character-backstory-builder)