To really understand your character where they are right now, you need to understand where they came from.
I've often thought that writing out their entire personal history would make writing their present and future a lot easier, because I would already know everything about them. But not only is this a massive time sink, you don't need to write about every year of their life or about every event that happened to and around them.
You do however need to know the highlights: the things that impacted them so much, they helped to shape who they became.
Ironically, to write about these important events, you need to really understand who they are right now. Then you can work backward to figure out how they got there.
So:
If your character could stop time and make one moment from their past last forever, what would that moment be?
What is something so important, it informed some part of them, or that you used to inform the setting or plot?
The Next Level prompt is the exact opposite:
What one memory would your character do anything to erase?
The best and the worst of a character's past is often what informs them, their motivations, and end goals the most. They come together to build a character with ambitions and fears, running to and away from something.
For example, my character Acacia would live in the memory of welcoming orphan Ashton into her home and family after returning with him from the final battle. And she would give absolutely anything to erase the day she was promoted from not only her own mind but from everyone else's too.
Have fun!
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