Writing Backstory: Know What’s Enough
When you’re creating a character, whether it’s a protagonist, antagonist, or even a secondary character, an important step to making them as real as — and relatable to — your readers is writing backstory. We each have our own history, the memories that we can recall, either just for fun or to help us understand a current situation. Characters should be the same. Each story has a starting point, and that starting point should hold a special meaning that justifies why we should care about the character or their situation at this specific moment in time. However, no matter where we start, there are events that brought the character to this defining beginning, and bits of that backstory may or may not be important to show in the narrative.
You have a backstory, and so does your character…
Why You Should Write Backstory
No matter what genre you’re writing, you want your characters to be relatable, and you want readers to understand who they are and where they’re coming from. Writing backstory will add dimension to their personalities. What spurs their emotions? What causes their fears? What motivates them? Why do they make the choices that they do? Some of the answers to these questions aren’t necessarily relative to the backstory. It depends on the character you’re creating and what their story is.
For example, if you’re writing a story about a character struggling in their first romantic relationship, you have to ask yourself why they are having a hard time. Do they not genuinely like the person they’re with? Or, did their parents go through a nasty divorce, and the experience made your character wary to trust the idea of romance? Are they struggling because in chapter one they cheated on their partner? Or, is this their first defined relationship, but past flings have confused them about what it means to be committed?
How to develop backstory
When you’re developing your characters, you should take the time to write out their relevant backstory for yourself. That way, all of the details that you’re considering, that you feel are at play in their story, are clear to you. The next step, as you move from development to writing, is to discern which of those details your readers need to be shown in the story and which ones aren’t necessary. I think mapping out your protagonist and – if you have one – your antagonist is a must. Each character has their own motivations that push them toward their – usually conflicting – goals. You can also do smaller-scale development for some of the important secondary characters. I also think doing backstory write-ups is incredibly helpful when writing from multiple POV. That way, you know each of your characters in depth, and none of them have to fall short of being as deep, real, and relatable as another.
Oversharing. Under-Sharing. Just Right.
So, how do you know when to write backstory, and how much is enough? Start with the character’s goal. What do they want and how are they going to get it; what’s the arc of their story? Now, as you’re plotting, consider when the details of the backstory might be relevant to what’s happening in the present moment of the narrative. Sometimes, you’ll only need a few lines to catch readers up to speed on something. Other times, it might be valuable to include flashback so that readers get a full view of what your character went through during this relevant incident.
Example One:
Your character is returning to a diner that she and her family used to go to. The significance is that it’s been years since she’s come and the place looks different now. In this instance, you don’t need to go into full flashback. You can just include a few lines where your character reminisces about what the diner used to look like, and how she associates the setting with family meals. This can be juxtaposed to what the diner looks like now and the current reason why she’s there. Has something in her family changed? Is she at the diner with friends instead of family?
Example Two:
Two characters are seeing each other for the first time in over a year. They used to be close, but have drifted apart. This meeting is something that the story has been working up to, and to build up the significance it’s important to show the chemistry these two characters used to have. What did they do together? How did the protagonist feel when they were around them? Maybe the last time they were together is the reason they haven’t seen each other in so long, and it’s a big enough moment to show in flashback scene(s).
Try not to overshare at the outset. Even though you begin writing your story already having a solid picture of who your character is and what has brought them to this point, all of that information, that exposition, might not be necessary. The last thing you want the backstory to do is come out as an information dump that slows down your scenes. You should sew it into the plot at times, when knowing a hint more about what makes your character uniquely them is necessary for your readers to connect.
