Creating the Backstory: A Delicate Art

Characters shouldn’t be simple. In a novel, the “good guys” can’t be saints, and the “bad guys” shouldn’t be wooden demons who do nothing but snarl and bite. The most relatable, admirable, and sympathetic characters require personality flaws and moments of weakness, and the less appealing ones should, sometimes, evoke compassion. In reality, humans are complex…and fictional people should be, too. 

Everything that characters do, say, and think stems from somewhere. Certain personality traits can, of course, be inherent—but others arise from life experience. There are reasons why people feel resentment, sadness, anger, passion, hatred, joy, affection, envy, and love. Although these emotions will naturally arise from an in-the-moment narrative, they can (and should) also come from the past. How anyone acts is based on who they are and how they became that way.

For example, a protagonist might detest her sister right from the first page, but it’s only logical that something caused this before the story began. Another character could be attractive because he’s benevolent toward the less fortunate, but why is he so selfless? He could have come from a wealthy family in which the importance of generosity was taught, or maybe he committed a horribly selfish act during his youth and has vowed to make amends. Maybe the protagonist with hard feelings against her sister has spent a painful existence being the less favored daughter whose life has, as a result, not reached its potential. 

There should be a reason for everything, and those reasons spring from each character’s history—and so can genetic traits, such as a short temper that a character might have inherited from a parent. These explanations are crucial, and they should be presented in a way that makes the main story more interesting and keeps up with its pace. Incorporating a backstory into a novel without weighing down its flow can be a tough task, but there are many effective methods to achieve the goal…and here are a few:

Don’t give away a character’s history all at once. Chapter one shouldn’t be a dull and detailed recounting of what happened to the protagonist last month or during her adolescence or when she was thirty-two. Bring the past into the present incrementally…and when it matters. Be strategic about uncovering secrets. Reveal them during scenes that add drama and suspense.

Never devote several pages to merely describing what occurred years ago. Mix that information into the present story in a concise and gripping manner. If, for example, the protagonist was the victim of an armed robbery while in college, don’t just state that fact. Instead of “When Mary was nineteen, she was held at gunpoint by a robber in a convenience store,” show Mary dropping a dish that shatters on her kitchen floor after she sees a TV news report about a similar occurrence. Past events should come to light in emotional ways that drive the story forward. 

Allow the characters to ask the questions. If, for example, Mary’s daughter is in the kitchen when she drops the dish, the daughter could be suspicious of her mother’s nervousness and ask what’s going on. Mary might answer…but she might not, yet…and that will say a lot. Divulging a backstory through dialogue can be far more compelling than via exposition. 

Use all Five Senses. When referring to, for example, a character’s school days decades ago, don’t just describe the classroom or the field trips to the park on a spring day. Have that character flash back to the scent of chalk, the sound of a principal’s voice on the scratchy public address system, the taste of a particular brand of bubble gum that the protagonist chews while riding inside a warm, crowded bus filled with rowdy classmates. Common experiences such as these are relatable to readers, and they create characters that feel genuine. Incorporate such recollections into current action that jars a character’s memory: when she’s walking the halls of her own child’s school on the way to a parent-teacher conference or as she’s driving in her car and a bus headed to the local junior high cuts her off in traffic. 

Let the reader see. Novels don’t have pictures…but writers can paint with words. Rather than telling that a protagonist’s estranged son was once a bright student and a star football player, show the main character sifting longingly through a box filled with his old uniform and his report cards covered in perfect grades. This type of scene can be emotionally resonant, revealing without a word of dialogue how a character feels—and who characters are/were, even if they aren’t actually present in the story.

Make popular culture poignant. “It was July 17, 1955….” is one way to mention the past, but there are better methods, such as incorporating the world events, fashion, music, television, and films of the era. Placing a character in a movie theater while watching Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch or driving a Ford Thunderbird will do far more to pull readers into the time period than just mentioning the date. And for those who lived during whatever age the story is set, nostalgia will tug at the memory…and the heart.  

In fiction, the past matters—and it can enhance plot and characterization. When done right, backstory is seamlessly sewn into a novel’s intricate fabric, blending into the narrative and adding to its richness.   —

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Lorraine Zago Rosenthal is an author and entertainment writer. 

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Website: http://lorraine-zago-rosenthal.blogspot.com/

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