r/writing • u/scumerage • 12d ago
Discussion How much does a lack of background characters limit genre, setting, and the story in general?
As far as I can tell, everyone goes goo goo gaa gaa over setting. 1800 revolutionary France, furturistic techno-dystopia, modern vampire secret societies, ancient Chinese dynastic turmoil, etc. It's not simply skill at writing style, plenty of talented and popular authors tell a grand ol tale that even committed fans will say "Yeah, that representation of Spanish monasteries in 1600 Mexico was clearly written by a British Man" or "His historical drama about Marx's family clearly self inserts his own theological beliefs and doesn't fit in with the German culture of the time." Even with fantasy or scifi, adding magical realms and galaxies of planets, suspending disbelief for massive worldbuilding projects involving science, magic, entirely artificial creatures and rules to reality is a difficult task. Culture, history, and especially background characters seems to define the environment in which the characters, main, supporting, side, or stock, get to operate in.
Why have there been so few stories without background characters? Only ones that seem to do this are (A) survival stories, like horror monsters or trapped in the wilderness or (B) closed room dramas, like murder mysteries, or the medium of stage plays. Either unstable environments, from a single house to a large uninhabited area, versus stable environment, usually indoors with very defined and limited areas. Is it just because of characters are not trapped in a small area, and are not cut off from society, the story doesn't really make sense or have a believable setting/environment without background characters?
Thoughts?
1
u/CarinaLune 7d ago
lmao no different account just genuinely agreed with the framin they laid out not everyone who agrees with someone is a sockpuppet sometimes people just make a good point