Piper Nuelle

Backstories for characters can help aid and move a story along but they can also add necessary lore and history to a character so that the reader can understand them better, connect and relate to them more but also see why a character may act the way the do, or make decisions the way they do. For instance you may have a character who is always doubting themselves, trying to self-sabotage themself and react certain ways to people and events. Without lore and prior knowledge about that character the reader may find them annoying to read, wondering why they would hinder themselves purposely and just not connect with them, but if they are introduced to some form of reason as to why the character is acting that way, it may make them soften and understand that character.

One thing to consider though when adding backstories into stories about certain characters or events is whether it is really needed or not. Sometimes it is ok for you as the author to know things about the character that the reader doesn’t, they don’t need to know absolutely everything about them. But some things will be important to add and can add a layer to the character, add realism and a personality to them. One thing we don’t want when reading a character is a flat 2 dimensional character, we want someone 3D, full of energy, personality and stands out in the book realms so people remember them and want to talk about them.

Remember Bella Swan for instance, people said she was bland, had no personality and was boring, but she had layers to her, she had an addiction to a vampire, she was basically her mothers carer before she went to Charlie, and then she tried to mother him and be the grown up, she was stubborn, relentless with what she wanted… And although people say those things about Bella, she is a really memorable character… She may be boring in some ways, but she is relatable, we know her back story in Phoenix with her mum… it makes her have layers and yes, a personality. We know just enough about her for it to work.

So, how can you add in backstories to your book without just info dumping, no one wants to read a mammoth long text about the history and lore of the world you have created with your character, but they need to know enough. Here are some ways to add in some backstory, it can also help fill in some blank space if your book needs a little fattening up;

• Dream Sequences – Yes this is done quite a lot and sometimes can become quite cliché, but if it is done well it can work well for a story. You just need to make sure the dream fits the theme of the book and the theme of the time of the chapter. What I mean by this is, maybe an event happened earlier on in the book, and really it needed explaining then to make sense, you don’t want to add the dream sequence many chapters down the line, it could become to jarring for the reader and not fit well.
• Dialogues – You could have another character ask the main character about something to kick start a dialogue to have them explain it. This way it can be a two way conversation so it doesn’t become too boring or too one sided, but also, the other character can learn it at the same time as the reader.
• Flash backs – A memory that may play in the mind of the character, sometimes described in full colour or black and white depending on how you want to make the effect be seen. Films do this too, but you can be as descriptive as you want when writing it.
• Diary entries – Maybe something has happened to the main character and another character needs to find out something in their history to find them or help them. They could read diary entries and learn their back story that way.
• Home movies – Maybe the character likes to take home movies, or their family did. Maybe they could show other characters the home movies to help show them or tell them their backstory.
• A Prequel book – So with a lot of books and stories you end up with a sequel where the story continues on. But sometimes the lore for the first story might be so immense and hold a lot of information that it needs its own story entirely and this can be in the form of a prequel book.

These ideas are to help you incorporate backstories of your characters into your stories. You could choose one way to do it, or choose multiple ways to do it, either way incorporating a back story in can add so much depth and can help a story transform from a simple story to a true novel that captivates its readers into the world you are trying to create. And that doesn’t have to be a fantasy world, it can be helpful even for a romance novel set in the normal, everyday, mundane world. A back story can be for any genre and for any novel.

Hope this helps you on your writing journey.

xo Piper xo