Back to Square One: Crafting and Working in Backstory
Hello, and welcome to Thursday #3 in my character building series!
Every character has a backstory; to be more accurate, they have a life. They were born (or hatched or created from flowers; they originated somewhere). They grew up, learned things, had experiences that shaped them. If your characters, especially your main characters, don't have this, then you're writing flat characters. That is to say, you aren't truly listening to the characters. Because believe me... they'll have plenty to say.
Everybody loves to talk about themselves, and characters are no exception to the rule. We've all read books that fell prey to the dangers of backstory overload. You know the moment. It starts with a flashback and suddenly, the whole plot is derailed as the character vents about his childhood traumas like the reader is his psychologist.
So here's an important distinction for you: should your characters have a backstory? Absolutely. Should that backstory be included in the narrative? Not necessarily.
If you're writing it right, the characters' pasts should be influencing the plot. The two should, in fact, be so damn symbiotic that they're practically brushing each other's teeth. Your character's past is all tied up in and linked to her motivation, and her motivation is what keeps the book moving forward. So, yes, some backstory is probably going to creep into the story. But how, and how much, and when?
I'm going to give you two ways to give backstory. The first way is to insert a flashback. Here the reader is transported back to a crucial moment in time and given important details about the character's past. These moments are great for certain types of stories--mysteries where details are important; literary fiction where mood is everything and you're setting a very specific mood; any story where some seemingly insignificant detail must be included to foreshadow some kind of startling revelation-- my God, her mother's lipstick was exactly the same shade as the stain on the neighbor's collar!
One form of flashback that I used to like, but now find overdone, is the "I remembered the first time I saw him" moment. This is a way of putting us in the middle of the relationship without missing the beginning, and is a valid device, but it just feels done to death. There are only so many ways you can say that the sunlight framed his broad shoulders and his eyes sparkled and you knew it was love. (Of course, this may just be my hatred of love at first sight talking.)
Another way to give backstory is just to make a brief mention of the important moment. We don't really need to see the protagonist's entire summer at Camp Wannalickaboogie to understand that he saw a counselor drown and is now terrified of water. This is one of those instances when it really is better to show than to tell. I know, I know, that sounds like bad advice, but I promised you two things: 1. I'm right and 2. I'll explain more about the show vs. tell dilemma tomorrow. For now, just trust me that in these cases, it's ok to just tell us that the villain's great-aunt Mildred used to force her to eat tomatoes for every meal, leading to her obsession with destroying the world's supply of tomatoes, rather than painstakingly writing out the villain's whole childhood and tacking it on at the beginning.
Now, what do you do when you don't know what your character's backstory is? This would be the time to sit down and have a nice little author/fiction of the author's imagination chat. Listen to your character. He knows where he was born, and what his father's middle name was, and why that was significant. Do some freewriting. Open a separate document, away from your book, and type up a brief history for John C. Protagonist. It might not feel right on the first try, might end up getting contradicted later, and should certainly never find its way into the body of the novel, but it will help you understand your character better and, hopefully, give you insights into the connections and motivations which fuel your plot.
Every character has a backstory; to be more accurate, they have a life. They were born (or hatched or created from flowers; they originated somewhere). They grew up, learned things, had experiences that shaped them. If your characters, especially your main characters, don't have this, then you're writing flat characters. That is to say, you aren't truly listening to the characters. Because believe me... they'll have plenty to say.
Everybody loves to talk about themselves, and characters are no exception to the rule. We've all read books that fell prey to the dangers of backstory overload. You know the moment. It starts with a flashback and suddenly, the whole plot is derailed as the character vents about his childhood traumas like the reader is his psychologist.
So here's an important distinction for you: should your characters have a backstory? Absolutely. Should that backstory be included in the narrative? Not necessarily.
If you're writing it right, the characters' pasts should be influencing the plot. The two should, in fact, be so damn symbiotic that they're practically brushing each other's teeth. Your character's past is all tied up in and linked to her motivation, and her motivation is what keeps the book moving forward. So, yes, some backstory is probably going to creep into the story. But how, and how much, and when?
I'm going to give you two ways to give backstory. The first way is to insert a flashback. Here the reader is transported back to a crucial moment in time and given important details about the character's past. These moments are great for certain types of stories--mysteries where details are important; literary fiction where mood is everything and you're setting a very specific mood; any story where some seemingly insignificant detail must be included to foreshadow some kind of startling revelation-- my God, her mother's lipstick was exactly the same shade as the stain on the neighbor's collar!
One form of flashback that I used to like, but now find overdone, is the "I remembered the first time I saw him" moment. This is a way of putting us in the middle of the relationship without missing the beginning, and is a valid device, but it just feels done to death. There are only so many ways you can say that the sunlight framed his broad shoulders and his eyes sparkled and you knew it was love. (Of course, this may just be my hatred of love at first sight talking.)
Another way to give backstory is just to make a brief mention of the important moment. We don't really need to see the protagonist's entire summer at Camp Wannalickaboogie to understand that he saw a counselor drown and is now terrified of water. This is one of those instances when it really is better to show than to tell. I know, I know, that sounds like bad advice, but I promised you two things: 1. I'm right and 2. I'll explain more about the show vs. tell dilemma tomorrow. For now, just trust me that in these cases, it's ok to just tell us that the villain's great-aunt Mildred used to force her to eat tomatoes for every meal, leading to her obsession with destroying the world's supply of tomatoes, rather than painstakingly writing out the villain's whole childhood and tacking it on at the beginning.
Now, what do you do when you don't know what your character's backstory is? This would be the time to sit down and have a nice little author/fiction of the author's imagination chat. Listen to your character. He knows where he was born, and what his father's middle name was, and why that was significant. Do some freewriting. Open a separate document, away from your book, and type up a brief history for John C. Protagonist. It might not feel right on the first try, might end up getting contradicted later, and should certainly never find its way into the body of the novel, but it will help you understand your character better and, hopefully, give you insights into the connections and motivations which fuel your plot.
Emily, this is fantastic. This actually helps quite a bit for starting NaNo soon.. :)
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