Writing Prompt: Character Backstories and Histories

At today's writing group session, we partook in the following exercise:

Write a biography for one of the characters you want to put into a novel or story.  Should include:

• When and where he or she was born.
• Information on family members (mother, father, siblings, anybody else relevant).
• His/her fears.
• His/her ambitions.
• His/her hobbies.
• Likes and dislikes.
• Line of work.
• Physical description.
• Temperament.
• How he/she dresses.
• What does this character want more than anything else in the world?

Just about all of these aspects go into creating a quality, realistic, full-depth character.  And writing a full description and biography concerning the character's background and motivations will unlock their psychology, making it incredibly lucid for incorporating the character into the draft in a deep and resonant manner.  I've found first-hand that it is way easier to incorporate a character with all his or her thought processes, quirks, personalities, and history when it is jotted down beforehand.

Thus, either as a story or as a straightforward factual article, this prompt calls for telling the life story of a character, with all of the above being taken into consideration.  It really does help.

My own attempt at this exercise is below, for a character I may employ in a potential sequel for a novel I've recently finished.  This guy's history could be a novel in itself.  I wrote it from the perspective of another character:  a crime boss who hires the guy.  Enjoy!
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So you want to know about Mel Galton? He's easily the best of the business! There are days when I wonder if he's more machine than man.

Mel was born in the slums of Atlantia, a real hellhole of a city floating in the middle of the ocean.  Of all the cities built after the Great Floods wiped out most of the world's landmasses, Atlantia was considered the most free:  no corporations, no police, no government, just a hobbled collection of hoods on an artificial island, all working as a loose republic to try and survive.

So, Melburne Anthony Galton was born all-natural from a poor young woman who worked at a scummy restaurant; I suspect she was sometimes employed for more occasional jobs that required some discretion, if you know what I mean.  In spite of that, Mel and his mother never really knew who the father was:  it could have been any number of "customers."

It wasn't easy raising Mel in a dump like Atlantia.  She did her best to make money, keep herself and the kid fed and clothed and everything.  To make things easier, Mel took it upon himself to find his own means of surviving.  He learned to fight, to stand up for himself, and to do whatever it takes to get the food, clothes, cash, and whatever else he needed to survive.  Together with his mother, they got along pretty well for a time.

By the time he was a teenager, Mel was a natural-born hellraiser, and in some other life, he probably would have taken over my place as the boss of the NeoVegas casino ring.  But as it is, Mel's mother came down with a nasty form of cancer.  They didn't have much money to afford surgery, and quality surgeons were pretty rare in Atlantia anyway.  Mel had to find a lot of cash fast.  He hopped on over to NeoVegas, came up with his own system to try and beat the House.  It didn't work; I know, because I caught him.  I gave him a choice:  work for me, or get thrown into the deep sea to say "hello" to the sharks.  The kid was tough and a smartass, but he made the right choice in the end.  For a good while, he was a bouncer at my casino.

He made good money, but not in time to save his mother.  When he went back to Atlantia to find her, she was gone.  Her employers had relocated her for their convenience.  Mel was understandably angry.  He took it upon himself to track her down.  I think that was the first time he got a real mission worth fighting for, and a real taste of real action.  He tracked down all the leads he could, pummeling thugs and low-lives until they pointed him to the next person in the food chain.  They led him to a particularly nasty part of town, and he found her in a scuzzy little locked room.  They took care of her cancer long ago, using some hack-job back-alley surgeon.  With unclean tools and unauthorized nanite tech, she had some pretty grotesque complications.  They kept it under wraps with an endless supply of drugs.  Mel got to see her just long enough to watch her slip away; he said she felt no pain or sorrow, thanks to the drugs.

From that day onward, Mel decided he found his calling:  he became a mercenary.  He wasn't just any merc though; he put all his faith into genetics, to pump up his body, his mind, and his skills.  Even without the implants, the man is pretty buff.  He's hard to miss with his handsome face with the narrow cheeks, those calm Earthy-green eyes, and that mess of short black hair.  He usually wears his usual get-up:  heavy-duty cargo pants, a plain black shirt, a kevlar vest, sometimes a leather coat, and bandoliers for all the guns, knives, and grenades his job may require.  Yeah, he always looks like he's ready for war.  Maybe because he knows that it's the survival of the fittest, everywhere, everytime.

I couldn't tell you what the guy wants.  I asked him about finding a girl, settling down, and having a family.  At this point, he has enough dough to retire.  He just told me that fighting is in his nature, and he could never settle down.  It would take one hell of a lady to tame this beast.
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I realize after the fact that I failed to mention these characteristics:

• Fears:  at this point, I'm not entirely sure.  As hardened as this character is, I think a more abstract type of fear would befit him, such as fear of betrayal, fear of love, fear of stability, or a fear of society or authority figures.
• Hobbies:  I'm toying with the idea of having him play guitar in his spare time.
• Likes/dislikes:  gambling, womanizing, drinking.  Could be a total party animal, but generally isn't.  
• Temperament:  calm and stoic, but he has his share of attitude, and if pushed, he can have a rather bad temper.
• What does this character want more than anything in the world? At first, his sole prerogative is to live for the next mission, make money, and live for the moment.  In time, he may learn to settle down and find peace, if he finds the right woman...