Now I know this sound odd to ask but what are some good ideas/tips for determining a character’s birthday? I know a character’s birthday may not be all that important to most stories but in the story I am writing the protagonist’s birthday will actually be fairly important (long story short). Plus it is sort of fun to give your character an actual birthday on their bio you write up for them. Picture your protagonist or your villain and give them a birthday. What factors would you decide into what month and day it falls on? Please share!
Unless the character in question was born on Christmas Morning, I can't imagine the date carrying any real significance. My middle niece was born on Christmas, and for some reason that seems special to me. Plus, I only have to buy her the one present. It's very convenient for me, though I daresay less profitable for her.
You could determine if some specific event takes place, or if the circumstances of the protagonist's birth has some specific influence on how the person's life goes on i.e. if a kid is born in the beginning of a period of prolonged starvation (early spring, with summer very rainy and crops rotting in the fields), it could maybe stunt growth, due to crucial nutrients missing. You could also utilise the zodiacal sign that best seems to fit, based on the MC's character (I personally don't believe in astrology, and this is a debate that does not belong in this thread). This gives a general month. For my own story, I liked the zodiacal approach for the more 'obvious' MC, and I tied the month of the birthday of both MCs together based on how old I wanted them to be in relation to each other. This actually also fit with the zodiacal sign of the other MC. Everything else is curlicue
Only one of my characters have an actual date to his birthday and only got it since I was writing a short piece that took place on that date. September 17:th. Not much thought behind it. I knew he was born after another character born the same year so I wanted it to be a bit later in the year, but didn't want it too late either so September. I guess the 17:th just was the first number that came to mind. If I on the top of my head had to give the other character a proper birthday I'd say the 3:rd of Februari. All in all I don't care the slightest for birthdays.
I usually don't care about birthday dates, but in one writing project I actually gave my MCs birthdays. ^ ^ The female MC got hers on the 12th of August because it serves as a minor plot point that this is the time of the perseid shower maximum. Also, it fits her personality and looks to be a summer child. The male MC got his birthday somewhen in January, because the things I associate with that time fit his personality: cold air, clean snow, silence, "black-and-white" colors and you can look very far. There is a certain sharpness to the world.
My character's birthdays are somewhat random. I'll take into consideration what season I think would suit them, and what zodiac sign I think they should be, but that's it.
What are you asking? This is only something you can decide. If we don't know why your character's birthday is relevant, how can we suggest ideas?
Interesting. I thought about giving my antiheroine a birthday the other day. Since she is the main character, I thought she deserves one. Even if it doesn't serve a ton of importance in her story (I have yet to determine that) I think it'd be nice to give her a birthday. What would you say the month of February is? You said January is cold air, clean snow, silence, black and white? What of February? I personally do not like my birthday...I've always had very bad luck during it most years...it's in the middle of February every year. I usually take the day off work to avoid "Happy Birthday" wishes. Not too many people know about it since I took it off of Facebook. Although I dislike it, maybe I could appreciate it more if I gave my antiheroine my same birthday. She reminds me of me a lot at times. Actually, it might be a story/plot point now that I think of this. Maybe she doesn't like her birthday and wants it kept secret for private reasons and someone close to her spoils it and it rubs her the wrong way. If my friends and family found out my antiheroine's birthday is same as mine (again, not very many people even in my family when my birthday is), hope not to call attention to myself. I think February birthday would suit her though. Cold winter month. Guess it would be cool if I share it with her, maybe I'd learn to appreciate the day more even though I hate having a birthday rubbed into me...whenever I turn 30 or 40 or whatever, people always give the birthday person a hard time about getting old; I absolutely hate that. Maybe my antiheroine could mirror that a little bit in her story. In that way it could serve a small level of significance. What do you think?
What difference does the birth date make? Everyone has one by definition. Really, I can't think of a single instance where one date of birth would matter over another in a narrative sense.
If I ever wrote a story where a character's birthday was important I would definitely come up with one, but so far it's not been relevant in any of the ones I've written. I'd just be picking a date out of the air for no real reason.
If I had a reason for needing to set a birthday, the birthday would be affected by the reason. If a character is orphaned as a newborn and I want cold winter rain falling on the parents' funeral, then I have guidelines for their birthday. If I want a birthday party scene in June, again, guidelines. Abandoned outside an orphanage and not freeze to death. Born as a result of a famous power outage. Mom's pregnant while she argues about the upcoming Presidential election. Etc., etc.
I think a birthday may be more important if your story is set in the present or recent (last couple hundred years or so) past. I think people are quite aware of birthdays now, as opposed to, say, 200-plus years ago. However, before that, many people didn't even know when their birthdays were. I suppose they knew what season they were born, and possibly the year. But the exact date? Some did and some didn't. Personally, I assigned birthdays to my main characters in my late Victorian period novel (although the dates aren't necessarily mentioned in the story.) It helps me keep track of how old they are, on their own and in relation to one another. However, I didn't bother doing this with minor characters. Birthdays do play a part in my novel though, including one coincidence that influences the plot. So yes, I do pay attention.
I think everyday I see people saying something about birthdays on Facebook. Either their own birthday or someone else's they know. People make a MUCH bigger deal about birthdays now than in the past 10 years. I've never been one to 'glorify' myself on the day I was born.But majority of people I know make a big deal about it. I can see birthdays playing an important role though in a story.
I'd say it's much like January, but with the additional: So, more signs of the upcoming spring. But depending on year, February can also mean rain and slush, just like the other winter months.
Very good to know. Well...I've been reading a lot of astrological and zodiac and other things...what does MY birthday mean to signify and a lot of the things remind me of me...and they remind me of who my antiheroine is. She reminds me of me. She grew up as a loner (only-child, independent, loves to do stuff by herself) yet finds comfort being with someone. She needs her precious "me" time or time by herself...her space. She is really hard on herself but she likes to travel. Have to admit she is stubborn at times...she has a little bit of a temper but she is very passionate of her job. See the quote below I found on a website...speaks about me and her. Even though I honestly hate my birthday and she does too...maybe it would be sort of special still to have hers on the same day as mine. It could be a very important part of the plot in a way. Maybe her birthday is a sign of bad luck or her achilles heel every year. Does doesn't like people "rubbing it in" that she's a year older. She's around 30 by the time the story gets going. She hates when people give her a hard time about it. Maybe one of her friends or allies will rub it into her so hard it will cause her to go a different path in life or make different choices. Either way, I think it's cool to make her a character bio and add her birthdate to it. Again, she and I don't like our birthday but I think it would be extra neat if we shared it together. "If your birthdate is February 18, you love being active and impromptu. You are likely to add intimacy, love and passion to your relationships, yet need your space. You can be hard on yourself but can benefit from road trips. Every road you take tends to lead to success. You are intriguing, passionate, appealing, meticulous, loud, offensive, a show-off and a stubborn person.
Probably unhelpful addition. When determining my characters birthdates I usually already have how old I want the character to be, plus how old all the other characters are. From there I have an idea of how much older or younger I want everyone to be in regards to my favourite character in the story (usually the MC mind). Then I just set a date for the story to begin, even if it’s in a fantasy world or happens to be years in the future or past (time period date is pretty arbitrary cause I can always just say ‘well, in this world they didn’t start counting the years till... or they start over the count when so and so happens’). The actual date itself, if I’m working with gregorian calendars, usually just comes to me. I’ll ponder it and find that a particular number sounds right for them Andy sounds good with a particular month... it’s like intuition I guess. Like the date really suits the character. For instance. A character named Lionel Beckingham, in my mind, would be dated on May 15th. It just wouldn’t seem right if it was Lionel Beckingham dated June 28th.
Personally, I can't help but think this is a good question. After all the time when a person (in real life) is born can have an effect on things like their name. I mean, when was the last time you met someone named summer, who was born in september. I think the contrary approach to this idea though, is to just let it come to you and not ocverthink it. I could debate however that the former method requires some more detail, which a reader might have more appreciation for.
I usually determine this similarly to how I name characters; I try and pick something that fits with their overall character. My main character has a lot of connections to magic and spirits, so I made her birthday Halloween, seeing as it was originally portrayed as being the day that spirits could roam the Earth.
I like to know everything about my characters no matter how small a role they play. I have a lot of fun picking birthdays too. I don’t necessarily believe in the zodiac but I think it’s fun and curious and can be spookily correct sometimes so I usually start by deciding which of the 12 signs my character might be based off of some very basic traits. I don’t usually go too into detail about my characters’ signs beyond that. Once I’ve decided the sign I decide if there is any significance to the month and date. If not I’ll just pick something at random. If so I would give a little more thought to story specific meanings. Sometimes there are other factors that are story specific that make assigning a birthday to characters different but that’s my basic thought process.
If I give my characters birthdays, it's for fun. I had a comic I was trying to work on that was set during WWII, so since it had links to the real world the birthday thing made more sense than for a story set in a fictional medieval-style world. Like others here, I used the zodiac method to pick months and days. Went through my characters, decided which zodiac sign matched their personalities, and went from there. It's not important for me, but it was fun.
Although, that could be seen as slightly cliche? After all, there would be more than just your character being born on that particular day.
I'm aware of that, which is why it's not really a plot point in the story. It's basically just something I wrote in the character profile, and it'll probably just be brought up as a passing joke in the book. She doesn't have magic because she was born on Halloween.
Hi. I want to give an answer to this threat, even though it is an old threat, but maybe someone else might pass by as I did. However, there is a very simple way to determine a character's birthday, speaking from someone who must have a character's birthday as it is part of the plot of my character's purposes (Zodiac's and the Element's that's link to their respective element as my characters are usually elementals of some sort), lol the answer was much more simple than me rambling on... ok, the birthday ideally should be determined on the day that you created that character. I know it is a bit different with a writer than with an artist who draws their characters, but for a writer it would be the day you first mentioned that character in your writing, that is the say that anyone keeps dates of when they've done that (I do, though I'm not exactly a writer on my normal daily creations). But all and all, unless it matters for your story plot or like the purpose that I keep track of my character creations' birthdays, if it don't matter than it shouldn't matter, but it is nice to at least know your character's birthday. :3 Either way, at least for me, the day that they're created is the only day that makes the most logical sense to set when their birthday has come, I mean after all, one's birthday is the day that they have come to existence. Lol, if I am wrong, please correct me on that note. :3 But... something tells me that I'm most likely right, lol. Either way, cheers to anyone who's read this and have a good day/night whenever you're reading this.
