This is a very important process for authors because it is much more pleasant for the reader to conclude themselves rather than being told what they are supposed to know and understand about the story. For example, rather than writing that a character is anxious, we would prefer to mention nervous tics or a tight throat which betray their anxiety while allowing the reader to imagine their situation.

The backstory is the story before the story: everything that happened in the character's life before you, the reader, arrived there.

If the term is English, it is because the Anglo-Saxons understood long before us that writing can be learned, like any other art. We therefore owe them the theorization of a whole bunch of writing processes such as “show don’t tell” or cliffhangers .

Whether you are familiar with the term or not, you have inevitably come across examples of backstory in your reading. And for good reason: it’s often one of the ingredients of good novels!

Here are some tips for building a rich backstory that will flesh out your story.

WHY WRITE A BACKSTORY

The best stories are carried by strong characters that the reader enjoys following. However, the backstory is what will give meaning to your character, what will allow the reader to understand him and therefore to empathize with him.

Without it, the reader will see a character who acts, but they will not have the opportunity to understand his deeper motivations, which risks generating little interest in this protagonist.

DEVELOP THE CHARACTERS

The backstory serves to answer a central question: why are your characters who they are at the time of the story?

Understand: what are their fears? Their hopes? Their relationships with others? And above all, what are their motivations?

Answering these questions will allow you to bring to life characters who have real depth, a past that the reader will enjoy discovering little by little. This backdrop also gives you the opportunity to evoke emotions towards your character, whether it's sympathy, pity, or anger.

Take the well-known example of Harry Potter: the fact that Harry lost his parents at a very young age is central to the development of his character. Indeed, this lack has created a crack in him which is felt throughout the saga when the young man goes through moments of solitude or seeks father figures in characters like Sirius Black or Arthur Weasley. This characteristic also gives him something in common with Voldemort, who is also an orphan, and allows the author to build a rich parallel between the two enemies throughout the series.

The backstory must also make sense of the characters’ motivations. The Great Gatsby is a very good example: if Gatsby never appears at the lavish parties he organizes, it is because Daisy, the only person who really matters to him, is not there. By discovering their youthful love, the reader finally understands the character of Gatsby whose all actions aim to win back the woman he loves.

KNOWING WAIT FOR THE RIGHT MOMENT

The first chapter which tells the characters' past is a false good idea. Unless it's humorous or offbeat, there's nothing worse than a narrator who takes the reader by the hand and explains, "This is how we got here."

We must not neglect the pleasure of discovery that we feel when we read a story. This effect must be taken care of and maintained. On the other hand, it is completely wasted if the whole story of the characters is revealed too quickly.

We will also avoid what the Anglo-Saxons call info-dumping , that is to say the unpacking of a large amount of information at once. The ideal is to reveal the characters' backstory in small steps, as the story progresses to maintain the reader's interest, bring naturalness to the narration and possibly reveal unexpected elements.

For more details on starting novels, take a look at our article How to start a novel? .

SELECT INFORMATION

It is interesting to look at various aspects of your character's past to flesh out his personality: in what environment did he grow up? How were his high school years? Was he successful in love?

However, you will only keep in the novel what is useful to the plot, what gives meaning to the behavior or personality of the character in this or that situation.

For example, if the friendship between two characters is particularly important in the novel, it may be interesting to recount a strong memory that they shared in order to emotionally involve the reader in this friendship. On the other hand, there is no point telling an element that will have no impact on the plot.

USE THE SHOW DON’T TELL

It is to the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov that we owe the phrase " Don't tell me that the moon shines, show me its glow on broken glass " which inspired the expression "show don't tell", literally “show, don’t tell.”

This is a very important process for authors because it is much more pleasant for the reader to conclude themselves rather than being told what they are supposed to know and understand about the story. For example, rather than writing that a character is anxious, we would prefer to mention nervous tics or a tight throat which betray their anxiety while allowing the reader to imagine their situation.

This technique also applies to the backstory. Let's take the example of Harry Potter again: rather than explaining that its protagonist grew up in a family that mistreated him, JK Rowling prefers to feature this family in a chapter that shows all the contempt they have for Harry.

DON'T LIMIT YOURSELF TO THE STORY OF THE CHARACTERS

The development of a backstory is not limited to the history of the characters, it also concerns the world in which they operate. Thinking about this aspect of the story is important so that the reader does not have the impression that nothing had happened in this universe before the events that are being told.

For example, in Game of Thrones, a major political event took place a few decades before the start of the plot: the Targaryen line lost control of the kingdom after the assassination of the Mad King. This event is of capital importance since the entire geopolitics of the kingdom was shaken, explaining the political instability which influences the motivations and existence of the characters throughout the series.

This is not limited to imaginary worlds. Let's imagine a thriller that takes place in a residential neighborhood like Desperate Housewives where everyone knows everyone. It would be interesting to reveal little by little the links which unite the residents, the tensions which may have existed, the friendships or the conflicts which precede the beginning of the novel.