I love developing my characters’ backstories. For one, they
are the easiest ones to tweak when your real story suddenly changes direction.
They also provide a wealth of information about your characters, their story arc,
and why they react to the situations you drop them into (to say nothing about giving
direction to your plot development).
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| Recurring Nightmares? |
And while it might be tempting to have your character react
in predictable ways, having him or her do something unexpected (but logical--for
him or her) provides more depth and can entice a reader to find out why that
character responded that way. Because our experiences are as unique and
individual as our personalities, your character’s reaction to any given
situation will be a combination of everything that has happened to him or her to
date. This is why being able to modify a backstory to get the reaction you need
in chapter fourteen is so powerful—and fun!
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| A past life? |
It also helps that very little of these backstories actually
ever appear in your book—like a very potent spice, a little goes a long way. Plus
I want my readers to fill in some of those gaps with their own reactions and
ideas. Like your character’s backstoy, every reader brings their own experiences
(backstory) to your book, so they will react to situations in ways you would not.
That can make your book more powerful for them because they have invested
themselves in your book in a very real sense.
Be creative and flexible with your backstories, and let them
evolve organically and change to make your characters grow and change in
unexpected ways. So, do you have any favorite backstories you’ve created or
read lately?
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| Was your character kidnapped are abandoned as child? |
4 comments:
I love playing with back story. In my RS book, Spirited Seduction, a psychic became a killer's target while she was helping with a murder investigation. After that, she tried to block her psychic powers. Of course, that didn't work for long, especially after an old friend of hers is murdered!
The heroine of my current WIP is the only child of con artist parents. That's been a really interesting backstory to write!
Backstory is one of the trickiest development tools in a writers kit. Too much and you spoil the construction, too little and the reader doesn't know enough about the characters/plot/motivation, etc. Backstory's kind of like eye makeup. A little goes a long way, and for it to be effective, you really, really, have to put it in the right place.
Back story is important. I write tons of backstory that never appears in a book. It helps me know who the characters are. Had so much for one book I put it out as a free prequel.
Bought a book Saturday. Out of the first 15 chapters 13 were back story. That was one of many reasons I returned it on Monday.
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