Character bio styles?

[David]

You may not have noticed but if you click on the topic for David in the characters section of this board you will find more or less a blank page, this is because I've been wanting to re write his character biography ever since I started work on the journal but the main problem is everytime I try doing so (and this is true with pretty much anything I write), I'll scowl at the finished piece and yell "THIS IS CRAP!" before mashing the delete key to get rid of it.

So yeah, I figure who better to ask about how the bio should be than the poor sods who "want" to read it in the first place?
My ideal option would probably be something like option 2 suggests but written in such a way that even the most newest of the new who are accidently tricked into reading it would be able to understand how David acts and how he works.
But hey, the majority of you may not like that idea so that's more or less why I've made this topic, duh.

[Ookalf]

I sorta did number 2 with Ookalf, but that was partly because of a sudden burst of inspiration the night before I posted it. I guess this is up to how you want to do it.

[Alissa of Someday]

Hmm--It's a tricky question, I think--I've faced similar difficulties whenever I've tried to sit down and write out bios for my characters...The second one, I think, would probably be the most preferable of the three though, if you could pull it off...the backstories of most of my own current OOCs, for instance, is all Muffin Room stuff, so I their histories are convoluted to the point where I think trying to include a summary would actually act from one's understanding...>_>

The journal is good stuff though, so I doubt the rest of your writing ihe 'crap' that it comes off as t'you though--give it more of a chance, mayhaps?

[Haylie]

Personally, I think a background is very important. I can't draw a new character without thinking to myself, "Okay, where did he come from, where did he get that scar, why is he like he is...?"

But that's why it's important, it gives an idea of who this person is, why s/he behaves the way s/he does, where s/he got scars or things like that. Not even scars, maybe hair-color or a certain nervous tic or saying. It all has to do with the past.

Or maybe I'm slightly insane, they haven't disproved it yet.

[Mitera Nikkou]

It depends on the medium that your character will be expressed in. Since I'm assuming that it would be used for roleplaying, I'd say to go for an in-depth biography, but not so in-depth as to reveal everything about that character. You need to leave something left for others to find out during roleplay, or at least room to suggest that the character (and thus their personality and feelings about certain things) may change the more they experience.

But it's really no use if you think that other roleplayers won't benefit much from it, so I wouldn't go through the effort of making an in-depth biography unless I knew that the targeted audience would make good use of it. After all, it's not meant to spoil anything, but rather to improve interactions between characters by the roleplayers behind them.

So I'd choose an option between one and two, since it would depend on the circumstances, if it were me. (Which is why I haven't roleplayed beyond Sir Godmodalot all these years, since everything is roleplayed by everybody participating, and is thus meant to be organized wackiness.)

[Helel]

I enjoy being descriptive with my characters, mainly because for Helel, Aeris, and Nokel, I've been playing around with them for literally years, continuously on IRC and the boards, which leads to a LOT of stuff that's occurred.

That and for the newer people, it helps to know if Helel being a bitch is me being an asshole, or just the way the character is. Generally helps to know, I think. ;P

[David]

I seem to have the right idea with all the suggestions and the votes so far.
I think it's worth mentiong that David is a character I prefer to use on IRC simply because I'm not too sure how well he would work on the boards as of right now (the journal he keeps is behind as it is and the sheer amount of people in the muffin room would probably cause it to explode).
Nonetheless I'll let the poll run its course before I start work on improving the biography for him.

I'm thinking maybe a variation of option 2 where I treat it not so much as a biography but more like guide for newcomers not unlike that of how a game manual is written (assuming you get a game that has bothered to include one these days).