Everything works for Ryan, he's like the Fonz.
The best advice I can give you regarding Histories is to Kiss It Simple (silly). If you're like most players, you're writing a History for a First (or near First) level character. They are, by definition, at the begining of their Adventuring career: it's unlikely they've been everywhere and done everything mostly because, they haven't. It's like the writing the History for someone who's going off to College or was just drafted into the Army - with a few exceptions, the History will be fairly bland.
It's important to establish a "homebase", some notable figures from the past (best friends, family, that cutey from two houses down), and maybe some personal traits. A lot of these questions often come up the first day you walk into Game, "Hail, cousin, from where do you hail?" and it's good to have something more than "Back east, ya know". By and large, it's unlikely to be a book-length tome or involve much derring-do (a First level character has, maybe, five skills, ¿how much trouble can they cause/solve?). It's also important to note that dropping a 10+ page manuscript on a Plot-Team is just begging them to back-shelf it - they want to read it, but they haven't the time. Five pages is usually a good limit for most teams.
However, by FAR, the most important thing in your History should be ¿why? Why is your character becoming an Adventurer? Why are they leaving home, safety, the familiar, the known, for a world of death, poison, disease, Magic, and mystery? Though you needn't write it large and bald in your History, it's good to have a single sentence reason for this pivotal idea. Even something as simple as: She's Becoming An Adventurer because she hated always being the "little" sister; or She figured Becoming An Adventurer was the best way to make the most coin. It's an important note in the Character's development as, down the road, you can always come back to this Mission Statement when faced with difficult decisions.
Other than that, Plot always likes openings, unanswered questions, and Chapter/Character cross-overs to play with. If you can write other Player's Characters into your History (ask them first), so much the better - if your Character is from a Named town on the Chapter's Map, double-plus points. The more your History seems to fit into the World the Plot has already formed, the more Plot can write pertinent and interesting interactions for your character. After all, if your Character is from Mars, and the game is set on Venus, ¿what's a Plot-team to do?
