What Does Backstory Look Like For Your Characters?

 Writing | Character Creation Series 

Hello, my friend! 

Today we are continuing with the Character Creation Series by showing why backstory is important to your characters and how it works. 

Last week’s Post we talked about our past and how our past (our backstory) affects us today. So by understanding why our past matters we can understand how it affects us. By understanding ourselves and how we work we can better create a character who is relatable and feels human. 

This is what we are going to be talking about today. Why backstory is so important (even if your story never has backstory scenes). We will also be having some Character/Story Studies so we can better visualize this. 

Let’s start! 

Why Is Backstory So Important? 

Backstory for your characters is their past. It is how your character is your character today. 

If you read my first Post in this Character Creation Series, you will know that misbelief (the lie your character believes) is the foundation for their every decision including their behavior, desire (goal), and fear. Misbelief is created in backstory. 

At some point in time, something happened to your character which changed their view of the world. They were given a new lens, and a new opinion, a new belief, a new outlook on life. This can be good or bad but in the case of your character’s story, it is typically bad. 

Backstory makes your characters feel real because they have history, they make mistakes, and what happened in their past affects them the same way it does us. 

How does this look? 

I’m going to show you two different story examples. One shows the backstory as a scene and the other tells backstory but does not show it. This way you can see it in both types of stories. One with backstory scenes and flashbacks and one without but backstory is still present. 

Disney Frozen 

You know I had to do Frozen at some point. If you know me then you know I love Disney so a lot of my examples will be from things I love including Disney. 

For the first 10 minutes of Frozen, you see the sister’s backstory. In their backstory you see how their misbeliefs came to be. 

Let’s start with Elsa. Very quickly we see how Elsa’s misbelief came to be. One night while playing Elsa accidentally hits her sister with her magic. Anna’s memories are then taken away and Elsa gets a prophecy that her magic can be a source of danger and fear. She grows up alone and tries to control her magic but the more she is afraid the more her magic acts up. Her solution: “Conceal, Don’t feel.” This creates her misbelief of, to be free and not hurt anyone she needs to isolate herself and never be around people. 

Let’s move on to Anna. Anna the sweet loving sister. When Anna’s memory is taken away, Elsa has to stay away from Anna to keep Anna safe. This leads to Anna feeling shut out. Anna just wants to be loved by her sister but her sister is staying away. This creates a desire in Anna to be loved, and have love. To be in a relationship that doesn’t shut each other out. This leads to why Anna was so quick to fall for Hans and was ready to marry him the day she met him. She was desperate for love and connection, the love she couldn’t get from her sister, and the love she lost from her parents when they died. Anna jumps at the chance of love without thinking of the consequences. 

Both of the sisters’ misbeliefs are born in their backstory and directly influence how the story plays out. Anna needing love triggers a fight with Elsa which reveals Elsa’s powers and makes Elsa run away and gain the freedom she always desired but wasn’t good for her. 

Disney Pixar Onward 

The next example is Onward! Onward follows brothers Ian and Barley who are elves. On Ian’s sixteenth birthday he and Barley are given a present from their dad. The present allows them to meet their deceased father for one whole day. Through a bunch of mishaps and mistakes, the brothers go on a journey that will change their lives. 

The backstory I am focusing on is Barley. Barley is a tough, fearless, cocky, headstrong guy who is a total nerd who loves role-playing and his board game. One of my favorite parts of the movie was when Barley explains why he isn’t afraid. 

Spoiler, when Barley’s dad died he was too afraid to say goodbye to his dad and ended up running away. After that, Barley decided that he was never going to be afraid again. This caused Barley to be fearless, but really he was masking his pain. The pain of losing his dad and never getting to say goodbye because he was too scared. 

This is one of my favorite backstory moments because it was explained in such a way that you could see the story, you could see this moment, but we never go into a backstory scene instead, we just watch Barely tell the story. 

This is a great example of having a backstory without flashbacks. I personally love flashbacks but they can be tricky to pull off and maybe your story doesn’t include flashbacks or a prologue. This is the perfect example of what you can do without flashbacks. 

The Rest Of The Series 

• The 4 keys to creating powerful addictive characters who feel real! Where I talk about misbelief, behavior, desire, and fear in detail. 

•  Backstory: how your past affects your present 

Discussion Time

Thank you so much for reading this post! I hoped you liked this post and all of the backstory examples. 

I want to hear from you! Tell me what you liked about this post. What are some of your favorite moments of backstory? What characters and movies do you love that pull backstory off well? I would love to chat! 

Be sure to subscribe to this blog to stay in the know because I post new content here every week (Fable Rose Fridays). 

XOXO Moriyah 💛