Your character’s life begins before the story does. They were a person before you even wrote that first chapter, and they’ll probably still exist after your story is over. Your character’s past is called character backstory in the literary world.
I believe many of you are familiar with that concept and even have written a character backstory before. However, writing backstory is only the easy part; writing a natural backstory is the real challenge.
Backstory can sometimes feel fabricated, artificial, or fake, which it is, but we don’t want the readers to feel it. Furthermore, a poor backstory can also make the character feel fake. Writing a natural character backstory is essential to writing a good character and a good story.
In this post, we will go through what a backstory is, what makes a backstory natural, and how to write a backstory.
What is a Backstory?
Generally speaking, backstory refers to everything that has happened before the story begins. Character backstory refers to a character’s history and experiences. It’s an explanation of how and where their identity was formed.
For example, a character was abused by their parents before the story began. The abuse they endured in their childhood shaped who they are and still affects different aspects of their life. Although it may not be directly related to the central conflict, the abuse affects their choices and the way the story unfolds.
The purpose of a backstory is to ensure a character existed before the first chapter. Backstory is especially important in the first few pages before the inciting incident, when the main characters are ripped from their ordinary lives and thrown into a journey. It will be easier for you to write about their life before they had to undergo a journey.
What Makes a Backstory Feel Natural?
A natural backstory is as much a part of the story as the plot. It isn’t separate from the narrative or something you pause to explain. It’s the character’s past, the experience that shaped who they are, and the reason the story exists in its current form.
The key difference between a weak backstory and a natural one is that the natural one is woven into the story. To put it in a different perspective, think of your story as a cake and the backstory as one of many ingredients. You don’t see the eggs, flour, and butter individually; they become a part of the finished cake.
The thing about a natural backstory is that it’s like walking into a new room. At first, you might notice the general layout and who’s inside. As you spend more time there and return on different days, you’ll notice smaller details, such as chipped paint along the window rim. The floor that creeks in one corner. How the afternoon light fills the room differently than in the morning.
Each visit reveals something new, and over time, you develop a multi-dimensional understanding of the room. So when you’re writing a natural backstory, you write it in layers. You begin with the character’s closest people, then defining moments, favourite memories, and so on.
Even you, the writer, have to get to know the character, and it happens in pieces, like when you walk into a new room, you don’t notice everything right away.
How to Write a Natural Backstory
Learning how to write a backstory might feel like an abstract concept. There’s not a right way to do it, but there are counterintuitive ways. I have put this large and quite abstract process into four steps. Each step will help you get to know your character differently.
Step 1: Work Your Way Backward
You can create a character’s past from what you already have. I’m guessing you already have a plot or a scenario you want to write. You can use the character’s role in the plot to write their backstory.
Ask yourself: “What had to happen for my character to become this person?”
You begin with what you already have and work your way backward. The present story will guide you through the sequence of events, motivations, goals, and connections that led them to their current status quo.
This is the first step to creating a natural backstory. You’re building it off events that had to happen for them to find themselves where they are now. You avoid accidentally writing something that doesn’t add up.
Step 2: Build Around Defining Moments
This step is both a shortcut and a way to keep the backstory focused. This step is especially helpful if you have a large cast. It’s time-consuming to write everyone a full-blown history, and it will only tempt you to reveal more information than you need to.
Therefore, I want you to build around defining moments. Sit down and handpick a few moments in your character’s life that:
- Shaped how they think.
- Made them make a choice.
- Uncovered a false belief.
- Prioritize one value over another.
- Build relationships.
You only need a general understanding of who your character was before you begin writing the story. These are different areas of their life that shaped who they are now.
Step 3: Give Them a Life Outside the Plot
Your character needs to be more than the role they play in the plot, especially before the inciting incident. That’s because before they were solving the central conflict, they were doing something. They’re not going to feel like a real or natural character if all they did was wait for the story to begin.
Give them hobbies and duties. Maybe they used to spend time with their family or friends, or they were alcoholics. Perhaps they were a wild person who lived in the woods and hunted for food. Whatever it is, write it down.
Step 4: Create Their Early Life
As your local therapist would like to say, “A person is the product of their environment.” Your character is nothing but the place they grew up, the people they were surrounded by, and the lessons they learned.
You have to write the background part of their backstory. That’s as natural as it gets. Write down:
- Family members.
- Friends.
- Community.
- Education.
- Gender.
Learning How to Write a Backstory
A natural backstory isn’t separate from the story. It’s the history that gives meaning and reasoning to the characters, the world, and the plot. For it to be truly natural, you have to stop treating it like invented information.
However, for all your effort in writing a natural backstory to pay off, you have to reveal it as natural. You can read this simple approach to reveal character backstory in this guide.
