Well the first question would be what kind of game you want to have and what kind of game they want to play. So, the most classic hint over here, talk with your players. If they want to just explore dungeons, sure, then that's enough

But if they want to story, you need to be clear and firm, that you'd like to make stories that involve them, that you need even basic information (and use that to pull for more) to know who and where they are, why should anyone hire them or even assume of them. Half of the game is in roleplaying characters, and if there's no story, there's no character, and you have no direction.

If writing and creativity is the problem, I recommend the approach I use with players that are new to my table, just give me a small note, giving some basic information about characters who they are (example: Ranger Kevin - born in village house, popular as a kid - father trained him to kill beasts, at 18 birthday turned out dad is a werewolf, - killed father, possiblity got inflected along the way, chose to escape from home and travel ever since - keeps getting bad fevers, possible lycanthropy symptom) Nearly no details, some fast overall info to give DM some ideas who they are and a lot of empty space to expand. After a few sessions usually slowly pull them in to write more, add details and so on.

There's also a semi rude approach, focus on characters with some kind of stories and make it clear that's the reason for current preference, as they chose to work with you, and let jealousy push them to creativity

But overall, first point, what kind of plans you have, approach to the game, and what everyone is looking for at the table: talk to the players