How to Create Engaging Backstories for Your Characters

Backstories are a crucial part of storytelling, and for a lot of reasons. In this post, we will go over why backstories are important, the most common types of backstories, and how to write them.

First things first, what are backstories? According to Google, they are the history or background created for a fictional character.

Backstories create character motivation

Often, a character’s backstory will be the key reason their goal in the main story.

Other times, the thing that triggers the characters’ goal and makes them pursue it through the plot, will be something that happens during the main story. But backstory is still important, as it gives us a sense of who they are and why they would react to events in a certain way.

This is often seen when detectives become obsessed with catching a certain bad guy. Something will have mirrored or triggered their backstory. This gives it a personal reason even if it isn’t all that personal. But because there is a backstory, it allows us to explore the reasons and depth of that motivation.

The Ghost

What a lot of people call the “Ghost” is something that has happened in a character’s past, which has left them with trauma they can’t get free of. This trauma is the kind that restricts the person and doesn’t let them become who they want to be.

An example of this would be in Finding Nemo, when Martin loses his entire brood, it becomes his Ghost, making him become an overbearing and overprotective father to his last son.

In these kinds of stories, there is usually a moment where the character gets a chance to free themselves of the Ghost, which then allows them to become a profoundly different person. For this to happen, the effects the Ghost have on the character must be linked to the plot events.

Audiences often identify with these kinds of stories very well, as there is a powerful human desire to break free of the constraints of the past.

How to write a backstory

• Draw from real life

Think about your life and all the key events that have led to who you are today – all those events that have made you who you are.

It will be the same for your characters. There will be all kinds of events, big and small, that will have made them who they are. So, draw from those, and it will help you to make a realistic background for your character. This will then help you to write a backstory for your book.

• Work Backwards

When making a backstory, you start from the time the story is taking place. Consider who they are, and what would have caused them to be that way.

Work backwards, marking important events that shape who your character is. Using these events, you will be able to make your characters backstory.

How To Include a Backstory in Your Novel

As much as it is important to have an impactful and meaningful backstory, it is just as important to pick the right moment to reveal it.

You need to ask yourself how necessary the backstory is as part of your story, why does it need to be revealed, and what does the backstory achieve?

A backstory is a huge tool in writing and can be used for multiple things. It can be revealed in snippets to gain empathy from a reader, to explain a character’s reaction to a situation, it can be part of a big reveal, or to add a plot twist.

Don’t do a backstory dump

One of the most common mistakes is dumping the backstory at the start of the story as a whole chapter, or multiple chapters. This overloads readers and can make them turn away within the first few pages.

Make readers fall in love with your characters before showing them lots of backstory. It is okay to show some backstory within the first few chapters but hold most of it back to use later. Spread your backstory throughout the actual story. This way it will pace better and keep the main story going.

Thank you for reading, if you have any other tips for writing backstories do leave them in the comments below!