What Is Backstory? How To Make It Work Like Scar Tissue In Your Book

What is backstory in fiction? Learn how to use backstory like scar tissue to add depth to your stories and characters.

Backstory is necessary. We all come from somewhere, and things have happened to us along the way.

What Is Backstory?

A good way to get your characters’ backstories down is to complete a good character biography for each of your important characters. Filling this in helps you get it out of your system without adding any unnecessary extras in your novel. You can also refer to this biography for inspiration if you get stuck.

Backstory is the history of your character. It is a collection of the stories and things that made them who they are. However, people would run screaming from us if we unburdened everything on them after our first meeting. If we find people interesting, we will ask them how they came into our lives.

How To Make Backstory Work Like Scar Tissue In Your Book

Writers should do the same when writing a book and introducing their characters. They need to make us interested in them before they tell us everything about their past lives.

Backstory is the scar tissue…

A character‘s backstory is the scar tissue of our books. When others get close enough to see the scar, they will want to find out how we got it. They will ask what our history is.

So, before you tell us about your character’s past:

1. Begin your novel when everything changes, when there is conflict, and change. This is usually called the inciting moment.
2. Make us care about the character. Make sure the inciting moment is strong enough to make us empathise with them.
3. Make us care about the story goal. Create a sense of conflict, suspense, and excitement that makes us want to read more.

You can weave backstory into your novel through: dialogue, interior thoughts, outside media, summaries, and brief flashbacks.

Examples Of Backstory Used Well

These novels show how backstory can function as scar tissue. The wound may have healed healed, but the mark remains and continues to influence the character’s life.

1. Beloved by Toni Morrison. Morrison reveals the characters’ painful pasts in pieces, showing how old wounds continue to shape their lives and choices.
2. Atonement by Ian McEwan. A single childhood mistake casts a long shadow over the characters’ lives, influencing their relationships and futures.
3. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. As the truth about the characters’ past slowly emerges, readers discover the emotional scars that define their lives.
4. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Rebecca’s presence lingers through memories, secrets, and rumours, shaping events long after her death.

The Last Word

Backstory, like scar tissue, shows where characters have been hurt, what they have survived, and how those experiences shape their choices. When used well, backstory adds depth and meaning to your novel without taking attention away from the present story. If you think you have too much backstory, read Is Your Backstory A Threat To Your Book?

Image by _Nini_ from Pixabay

by Amanda Patterson
© Amanda Patterson

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