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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47175
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I disagree with @Galastel. Not every character needs a backstory.

Many minor characters in fiction only need to appear consistent with their context and the purpose they have in the narrative. When the protagonist shops at a supermarket, takes a bus, or asks for directions on the street, the clerk, bus driver, and passerby only need to behave in the manner that we are familiar with from our own everyday experience of similar situations. And even if the bus driver pulls a gun to shoot at the hero, you don't need a backstory for him before the hero shoots him, you only have to make it plausible within the logic of the narrative that a henchman of the antagonist would be placed in that position. What made the bus driver become a bus driver or the henchman a henchman is completely irrelevant if they only appear briefly to be paid or shot.

### Backstory serves to makes the behavior of a fictional character consistent.

If you can accomplish consistency in another manner, you don't need backstory.

I never even do the full character interview and what else is recommended to "become familiar with" my protagonists. I only flesh out their backstory as much as I am interested in it, and that is usually enough for my readers to be happy. What I do is create a _psychological profile_. That is, I sketch out their personality, their needs, their fears, their interests, and so on – but again, only insofar as these are relevant for the story that I have outlined and want to tell.

Using your example, I would ask myself:

- What makes your main character fall in love with her love interest?

- What makes the love interest behave in the way he does?

If the job he has is relevant to the answers to those questions, then I would think about what job he has. If not, not.

Original score: 1