Backstory

A Flipside essay
by [Po]

Backstory is one of the most neglected elements of writing fiction. Unfortunately for many writers, it is important in any stage of writing.
Wonder why? Because it adds a third dimension to your characters, along with the places and events of your story.

You need to understand your character's motivations even when your reader does not.

Not only does having a full history of your characters give them a dimension that makes them more like real people, it gives them consistency. If Sally gets incredibly upset at one point in your story after a car splashes mud on her new skirt, then at another point brushes off someone spilling hot soup in her lap, people will wonder why her reactions were so divergent. On a less abstract plane, if she is on a job interview in chapter one discussing her masters degree from Yale, and in chapter ten talks about how she dropped out of school in the eighth grade and never went back, you are lacking the all-important coherence needed.

A character's backstory may develop as the story moves on. You might write an entire history first, but the development of your character may change the backstory as it goes along. The important thing to remember is that the backstory belongs to you. It is revealed to your reader slowly and needs to be consistent, but if you decide down the line that Sally's character is better if she did drop out in the eighth grade, you can change her backstory and take out all references to her Yale degree. The important element here is that you need to remember and note this fact to avoid slipping back into the Yale references. This does not mean she can’t lie on her job interview and tell her potential employer that she did get a masters degree from Yale. That may very well become a new twist in the plot. You might even convince your reader it is true, as long as you know the facts about Sally and remain consistent about them. Once you commit to your backstory, think of your characters as chained to their past and having a personality just like a real person.

Sally needs a personality and she needs a background. Otherwise she is just a name in a story that does things for no apparent reason, and speaks randomly. Her personality and background can be revealed immediately to your reader, or slowly, allowing them to put together the many pieces that make up Sally. The reader may begin to relate to Sally. Perhaps she is ashamed of her past and lies about it constantly. The reader may start to wonder "When is she going to come clean?" Another element of plot development has been born!

Readers want to care about the characters they read about. They are naturally driven to want to know more about these characters once they begin to care about them. Once they have truly invested in a character like Sally, they are going to get extremely pissed off if she does or says something that does not fit her character. You must always know your characters better than your readers so that they remain consistent and continue to surprise.

Try to think of everything in your story as a character. The town the people live in is a character with personality and secrets. The car Sally drives to work has a history and a personality. You could go so far with your backstory as to know the entire mechanical history of the car, the date of its last oil change and the real origin of that "tick-tick-tick" sound coming from under the hood. Hell, even her necklace and stockings have a history. That history may never come into play, but as a writer you need to be aware of it.

There is a history to the setting of your story. Did this place really only exist once you created it? If you incorporate a strong backstory, it doesn’t have to feel that way. Even if none of the information about your setting ever gets revealed to the reader, it is important for staging the tone of the place. The history of the backdrop is an essential part of what makes the characters who live there who they are, so is also important in character development.

In order to better write your characters, you need to at least be able to think and feel what they do. Any true method actor will tell you that they need to know everything possible about a character before portraying them. That is in the interest of becoming the character, or getting into character, and it is something a writer needs to do as well. As you write a character, even a minor character in a story, you have to ask yourself questions about them in order to know how they will react to different situations while remaining consistent and believable. The best way to do that is to become them for a while, making notes of everything you discover while walking in their footsteps. It is important for you as a writer to know the backstory, or you will not understand the motivations of characters and the reasons things happen. If you don't understand, how could your reader possibly understand?

A reader will know when you've pulled a story out of your ass, so to speak. Even a completely plot driven story loses its appeal when the settings and characters come off as cliché’ cartoons. You may have the most interesting storyline, and know exactly how you are going to get from point A to point B. You might say that the intricacies of your plot will delight and stymie even the most intelligent reader. For some, that plot may be the starting point for an incredible short story or novel, but it isn't everything. It is only the beginning. What goes on behind the scenes is just as important as what happens on stage. Without backstory, the stage eventually crumbles.



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