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My 10-year-old niece asked me why the villain in my story was mean, and I had no good answer.
She said 'maybe his dog died when he was little' over breakfast yesterday, and now I'm reworking a whole character backstory because that simple kid logic felt more real than my three pages of notes.
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the_drew14d ago
Funny how kids cut right to the human stuff. Reminds me of my nephew asking why a cartoon character was sad, and his whole theory was just "maybe his favorite shirt got a hole." It made more sense than any tragic backstory I could have written.
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david_fisher3714d ago
But honestly @the_drew, sometimes those simple kid answers miss the whole point. Like a hole in a shirt is just a small problem, but a tragic backstory gives a character real depth. Think about Batman, his parents dying made him who he is. A sad shirt wouldn't explain why he fights crime every night. Kids see things simply, but good stories need more than that to feel real and important.
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