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Feb 19, 2024 · There are several different techniques you can use to convey backstory. Last year, I did a three-part series about backstory techniques. 1. Sharing Backstory With the Backstory Drip. The main one is the one you’re going to want to use in pretty much any story, even if you do choose to use some of the other techniques.
4 days ago · Key Takeaways on Writing a Character Backstory: Start with Basics: Identify the character’s name, age, race, gender, and profession. Explore Core Values: Determine their values, goals, and motivations, and the experiences that shaped them. Incorporate Conflict: Ensure the backstory includes conflicts or challenges that have shaped the character.
- Tom Bromley
- Know who your character is in the present. The way your character behaves in the present moment says a lot about their backstory. Often, there is a reason why they act or react to situations the way they do, making a reader wonder about their past.
- Remember that people change. With a firm grip on who your characters are now, you can start to explore who they used to be. While there should be continuity between their past and current selves, having some differences can show they’ve evolved over time.
- Create a turning point. Sometimes, a character’s backstory includes a catalyst that completely alters the course of their life. This event can often provide the key to understanding their actions.
- Reveal information in a strategic way. Maintaining some mystery around your character and who they are can be a great way to build intrigue. Drip feeding them the backstory throughout the book — or even series of books — will keep your audience engaged and speculating about the possibilities.
- Why Are Backstories Important?
- What Is A Backstory?
- How Can Backstories Impact Character?
- How Do You Communicate A Backstory?
- Writing Your Own Backstory
Generally, as screenwriters, we are trying to write characterswho have an element of truth and reality about them, so if everyone in the real world has some sort of backstory, then your characters should too. Today, we will explore how we think about and write backstories that can make your characters shine.
The backstory is everything that has happened to a character before the moment in which we meet them. Sometimes we will see the backstory be recounted later, but generally, unseen events inform who a character is in the present moment. The character we see on screen is like a house. We can see the windows, the walls, the roof, and the doors, and th...
In Breaking Bad, Walter White is a mild-mannered chemistry teacher who, after a terminal cancer diagnosis, makes meth so that he can provide for his family after he's gone. I guarantee you that at some point after Vince Gilligan (the creator of Breaking Bad) came up with that idea, this question came to him: "What kind of guy does this?" This is wh...
The biggest obstacle in communicating a backstory is being too expositional or on-the-nose. Hypothetically, Gilligan could have written a scene where Walter sits down and tells another character his life story from the very beginning up to the present day. He could recount every day he could remember and be as thorough as possible. This isn't the w...
The backstory is a crucial part of any screenwriter's arsenal that can make a boring character so much richer. It's often an integral part of tying the theme, character, and plot together. Backstories also help us understand a character, giving them qualities that make us see them as real, living, and breathing people. Use these tips, and hopefully...
1. Only insert backstory where it’s relevant. Backstory should always be triggered by something that’s happening in the story present. Think about how your memories pop up in your own life. They are usually triggered by something you see, hear, feel, etc. For example, say you see a car that reminds you of the one your mom used to drive.
Apr 24, 2022 · What is backstory? Backstory is everything that ever happened to a character before the opening page of their story. It's the character history that exists in your (the storyteller's) head. I know that sounds like a "duh, obviously" sort of statement. But what we need to pay attention to most is "before".
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Nov 28, 2023 · Character backstory is — and I can’t stress this enough — a principle component of exceptional storytelling. Without backstory, your readers have little to no context about why your ...
