: Re: When realistically portraying the characters' life is a bad thing? I have a fantasy story I'm writing which takes place in the medieval period. Let's take the hero (the protagonist) as a starting

@Si5022468

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When realistically portraying the characters' life is a bad thing?

Ignoring the context for now, I'd say the answer is: when the writer is portraying every day life for its sake rather than to advance the story.

Personally, I prefer stories (whatever the genre) where every day life (contemporary or not) comes into play. It's a great way to give a taste of the times, cultures and the personality of your characters. Sometimes, though, the writer can become engrossed in those little things, especially when accidentally showing off all the research they've made for the historical novel or all the cool stuff they invented for their fantasy world.

To focus on real life details for its sake can ruin the story; to use those details to flesh out the story's characters should help to create compelling characters and worlds.

...it's a very different take from the other stories, that most seem to just ignore all that...

The examples you give are mostly 'coming of age' stories, where the protagonist is thrown out of their childhood home and forced to find themselves while completing a quest. Usually elsewhere. Therefore, the protagonist puts the past behind them and focuses on the future.

Personally, 'coming of age' while going on a quest is not my cup of tea. I prefer to see protagonists 'come of age' by learning to see their childhood world through more mature, wiser eyes.

In your story, it seems to me, the 'quest' (although it sounds more like a challenge than a true quest) is set within that childhood world and requires the protagonist to see the people he knows and loves (or hates) with different eyes in order to become a grown man.

Therefore, using everyday activities in order to bring these characters and their village to life seems to be essential to create a compelling read.

the story "reminds" that people are born, reproduce, die, newly-born humans are dependent, everyone has or had parents, everyone has a genealogy, and everything has a beginning, including people's life.

To me, "realistically portraying the characters' lives" means portraying every day activities and common (or uncommon) relationships. If your concern lies with creating a realistic village where everyone knows eachother and their lives and their family's lives... well, it wouldn't feel like a true village if you didn't somehow give that idea.

If your concern lies with how much to write about it, my advice is to not use info-dumps but rather create the feel of a place where everyone knows everyone by having people commonly refer to family connections or, for example, to that woman who's the second cousin of your great-aunt (the one that married the butcher in the neighbouring village) and whose husband has a white mule which he bought from your neighbour's son. It makes no difference who those people are, but anyone who lives in a small town will immediatelly know what type of place this is. A place where you cannot forget all the little bonds, whether of love, blood, or hate.

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