Recap:

Last week, you received a refresh on everything going on in the Myersverse (trying that one out, don’t judge.) And the last writing post addressed one aspect of character craft, personality. Were you able to use any of the tools or references recommended to build stronger characters?

Introduction:

If anything tells you about the importance of a well-developed character, then look to the amount of books that focus on character craft. I have two paperbacks, multiple digital books, and I’m just waiting for a justification to buy more.

One of the key aspects of character craft is using backstory to develop the characters beyond the pages of the book. The Final Empire in the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson is a great example of characters with hidden depths.

Strengthen your characters’ backstory with this post and other resources to keep readers engaged.

Understanding the Role of Experience and Backstory

In the situation of character craft, experience and backstory are the events, choices, and key memories to the character, or those around them, that add another layer of definition to their character. Experience focuses on what the character sees as valuable from their past. Backstory focuses on what others and the narrator sees as important to the story. A quick note: not all pieces of experience and backstory will make it into your manuscript. Much of the following will never go beyond your own character notes.

Both experience and backstory shape’s a character’s identity. As I mentioned above, that perspective identity diverges at the observer. The saying you are a villain in someone else’s story comes to mind. And what is also quite common for us is in the real world is our determination to downplay our own value to the point we view ourselves as the villain in our stories. Focus on the characters’ contrasting beliefs to understand them better.

For example, say your character is a hero by nature and he saves a younger kid from being bullied by some of his peers. The child may view him as a hero or that experience shows people don’t think he can protect himself. The results from the kid’s perspective become your character’s backstory. Your character, most likely acting out of their own honor, views that experience as reforming, seeing the strength in helping the little guy. And now his peers created the backstory of how their once friend is too worried about being a do-gooder to have a little fun. They’ll say he changed, and not for the better.

While the above is a simple example, think of the situations you’ve already imagined or written your characters in. What experience and back story can you pull from those scenes to figure out how they got to that point? By developing scenes rich with detail and interaction, you’re more likely to find a better understanding of your main and side characters.

Uncovering the Character’s Past

As mentioned before, you can use the content you’ve already created to develop a stronger character, but what do you do if you’re just starting out?

• Character Interviews- One of my stories hit a dry spot where I struggled to get through a certain point in the first draft. I knew that the Artificial Intelligence was more of a character than they were letting on, and I’d just seen Joker (2019.) I pretended to put Marlo (the AI) on, Live! With Murray Franklin, and ran through whatever questions I could think of. I found a history so rich I was shocked and I also broke through my dry spell. So choose your favorite talk show setting, interrogation room, or however you prefer to question your characters and emulate it.
• Core Memories- If you haven’t already, go watch Inside Out. Disney did a great job of simplifying how experiences and backstory convey the character’s past. One of my favorite parts is when sadness touches a happy memory, and it completely changes the perspective of the memory. Play with the core memories of your characters as you find them. I wish it weren’t true, but some of them will be sad. However, as you explore your characters’ core memories, you may find that something initially perceived as happy may be clouded by their life experiences. If it was once a happy memory, why isn’t it anymore?
• Speaker for the Dead- If it isn’t obvious by the title of this one, I’m currently working through the Ender’s Game Series. The concept of the speaker for the dead is that one recounts not just the good, and not just the bad of the dead, but the parts of life you could learn from them. So, your character has now died and you are their speaker. What would you say about them?

Avoiding Information Dumps and Stereotypes

Now for the things to watch out for as you develop your characters with backstory and experience. But let me preface this advice with a truth. If it works for your character, for this story, and is justified, do it. If you can sell your cliched character to your readers, then don’t struggle to make them something they aren’t. Just be ready for the feedback. Anyway, now to the important stuff.

Keeping your characters’ experiences and backstory from sounding like the same ones you’ve already read, watched, or heard is hard. Our minds are wired to seek familiar experiences, like the Police Officer who suffered a tragedy that should have been avoided. The nerdy kid in high school has a glow up and wins his old high school crush. Or just creating a tragic backstory to build empathy in your readers, but there is no other point.

Your character will justify the backstory and experiences you create for them, so don’t force it to try and fit into the latest trend for angsty teenage protagonists, or whatever it is right now.

Ask these questions to determine if your character is genuine or just another stereotype:

• Does the character act this way on their own? Or am I forcing them to act like this?
• Have I done the background work to truly identify the character? Or am I working off of characters I liked in the past?
• What is the one thing that makes this character unique from everyone else in the story?

Avoiding information dumps can be another challenge for a writer of any genre. You want to make sure the reader understands the story, but also, you don’t want them to put down the book. Unlike Tolkien and other authors of that time, the community of readers isn’t as willing to venture through long lengths of history and description before getting back to the plot. Modern readers want to know the information they need to know to understand the story, though you can get away with leaving more out depending on your genre and story type.

The best way to avoid info dumps is to consider the following questions:

• Would my Point of View (POV) character notice these things I want to bring up?
• Do these extra details pertain to this part of the story? If not, can I add them to my story bible/map/dictionary?
• Would a reader need to backtrack after reading this section to remember where they left off?

Those are only a few questions to consider, but there are always more ways to trim the story to be the most concise it can be. Share some of your favorite methods in the comments!

Conclusion:

Building a character through backstory and experience is a lot of work, but it pays off in better characters for your readers to love, or hate, forever. Breaking the study of character into the Backstory(Outside observer) and experience(Internal observations) you’re able to more fully understand your character and how the past has made them who they are in your story. Also, stereotypes become stereotypes when you rely too heavily on previously established standards. By making your character’s past pertinent to who they are and who they need to be, you’re able to steer clear of common character mishaps.

Now take all the pieces of advice above and apply them as you will. One method won’t work exactly as described for every author. If you come up with better questions than me, then that’s even better for you. Don’t be afraid to get creative with how you build and use your character’s backstory and experiences.

Always remember that your character existed before your story began, so no character is without a past.

Thank you for reading, and as always, keep learning, keep writing, and stay fresh, my nugs!

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