All You Need to Know About Backstory

Photo by Mr Cup / Fabien Barral on Unsplash

Writers hear a lot about backstory, but if often remains vague, undefined, and maybe something thrown in without any real regard for why it’s necessary other than “to explain the character’s motivations.”  

That’s a good reason, but that’s not the only reason to include backstory. And sometimes writers include backstory that isn’t necessary, which just leads to confusion for the reader.  

It’s understandable – we create these amazing characters, and we want readers to know ALL about them.  

Today I’m going to tackle Backstory: what it is, if you need it, how to create it, and how much of it you need.   

What is Backstory? 

Backstory is all the stuff that happened to your characters and world before the start of the story. Their history, in other words. This can encompass a lot of territory – an entire life, or an entire world’s or culture’s development. For many writers, this is the fun stuff. They may spend years just developing that. Other writers just prefer to plunge into the story, and work out any needed backstory as they go.   

Do I need it? 

Every person, from their first breath, has a history of experiences and relationships that shape them. Similarly, every culture, or town, or world, has a complex history. In other words, we all come from somewhere. Your characters and settings don’t just spring out of your mind onto the page. If they have no history – nothing that affected them up to this point and made them who/what they are – they will be flat, boring, cardboard cutouts. Readers won’t care.  

So yes, you need it. It doesn’t just explain the character’s motivations in this moment, but it informs all their choices leading up to this moment and beyond. Our histories establish our beliefs about ourselves and the world. These beliefs include what we think we can and can’t do, and how we relate to other people and circumstances. Our knowledge, our skills, our misbeliefs, our assumptions, our expectations, our values, what we consider good or bad... some of these things develop over the course of our experiences, others are explicitly taught.  

These histories create the Setting, and also the Character Arc that develops over the course of the novel. If you don’t want your characters to be puppets simply reacting to the plot, they need backstory. If you want your setting to be rich and evocative, you need backstory. 

How to create it in a relevant and interesting way?  

First, write the backstory for yourself. You can make it as long and involved as you want. But the reader is not going to care about 90% of it. What you need to write is a scene that relates to the character’s situation in this particular novel. What in their past relates to what is happening to them now? What lesson, belief, or misbelief about people or the world affects the way they view the story situation, and the way they try to solve their story problem or reach their story goal? This often relates to a wound they experienced that is so pervasive they may not even realize how pervasive it is. 

For example, Gina and her sister lived with their mom after their dad took off when Gina was 8 and her sister was 12. Their mom had a string of boyfriends and jobs, which led them to move constantly, so Gina and her sister never really felt rooted after that. Gina’s sister took off at 18, and she rarely hears from her - she never seemed to care what become of Gina or their mom. Gina is left with a strong feeling that a) the only person you can rely on is yourself, because the people you love leave, with a side of b) men are not to be trusted.  

Now, what specific scene could you write that encapsulates her warped beliefs? This probably won’t go in the novel (though it may) but it’s the moment when her belief crystallized. 

Once you know this backstory from Gina’s perspective, you can dribble it in where it will add tension and stakes: in conversations with her mom and sister, or a boyfriend, for example. Or in a scene where she has to make a decision, and take action. It should be the wrong action - but based on the background and beliefs which seem perfectly logical to her. This is relatable. We all do this!  

In Speculative Fiction, it can be more complex because there may be more world building or technobabble needed to fully flesh out the backstory. But the principle is the same - don’t dump it in all at once, or just because it sounds cool, but sprinkle it in where it will add tension, stakes, or deeper meaning. You might create some scenes, or histories, or timelines, of relevant people and events that shape your story today.

How much of it do I need to include in my novel? 

The easy answer is: as much as you need to tell the story effectively. Only things that are actually relevant to the story should be included. This might be tricky to do in a rough draft. You may well throw in too much backstory in the first draft, because you are learning the story and characters, and building the world, for yourself. It’s okay to put an “info dump” in a chapter for now, then once you have a full draft you can weave that information in where it’s most needed. 

The key is to keep it to backstory we actually need to know for this story. If it’s not relevant to this story’s goal and stakes, it doesn’t need to be present. Too much backstory can slow the pace, and make readers impatient. You don’t want them to give up reading from a glut of irrelevant information. 

If you have too much but really want to find a home for it, remember J.R.R. Tolkien: he wrote an entire book, The Silmarillion, as backstory for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. There’s always another book! 

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