A question for profile "History"

[Dahso]

I've been rolling this question around in my head for a week now and it's driving me mad.

The question is...
What constitues a profile's History?

I ask this question because i'm no fan of word by word history. An example for word by word history would be...

"John lived in goldshire untill he was fifteen, and then he moved into the city of Stormwind to look for a job..."

This type would be easier to read, and is a history. However, being myself, I can't list a list of places where my characters originated from. And so, I would like to ask about everyones view points on a narrative history.

While a word by word history may be easier to follow, I find it bland unless worded properly. And so, an example of a narrative would be longer and cover a shorter period of time. (For examples, read up on Tobala's history or Caten's.)

While I know that history isn't supposed to be the most exciting thing to ever happen, i'd like to know how everyone feels on the textbook version of history compared to the narrative version.

Is a narrative version harder to approve?

Does a narrative version leave too many voids in their timeline?

Just a few questions that I ask myself.

[Hawk]

Dunno if this is any relevance, but I write the most significant parts in said character's life for their history.

Sure I add some other stuff, but I don't tend to add.

[Harmonic]

Narratives, although sometimes nicely done, do sometimes make it hard to read. Honestly, I prefer a direct method to a person's history.

Why? Narritives tend to leave out the important bits for the sake of making a story, a lot of the time. Honestly, think of your favorite books. Does the hero's history come to you within the first page, or is it over the length of the novel?

Making it direct and informitive rather than story-like is really what the profiles are for. If you wish, however, to go into more detail and make the history story-like, be my guest to post it in storylines forum!