The back-story are those incidents in the far flung or near
past that determine your character’s personality, position now and influence
his/her decision making process. Creating a back-story is like creating a
Eulogy for your character. If your beloved character dies what would you say as
their father/mother. The ‘eulogy’ will include details on his/her
a)
Statistics – name, year of birth, place of
birth, community of birth and any way it influenced the character
b)
Parents – names, careers, character traits,
relationship to one another, parenting ideologies, any vices or virtues that
influenced your character,
c)
Siblings – names, character traits, past
relationship with the character (competitive/supportive), current relationship
d)
Relevant relatives – any extended relative who
significantly influenced him/her e.g. grandfather, uncle etc.
e)
Schooling – where (elementary, middle, high and
vocational/college), performance in school work, performance in school
activities, relationship with other students, relationship with teachers, best
friend, any issues that affected character when he was in each stage of
schooling.
f)
Past Relationships i.e. The one that got away –
name(s), type of relationship, reason for break up, where are they now?
g)
Ideologies – politics, religion, sexuality,
money
h)
Spouse – name, where they met, character traits,
past relationship, current relationship
i)
Children – name(s), age, past relationship,
character traits, current relationship
j)
Friends – best friend, character traits, how
they met
k)
Work life – career, evolution of career, their
feelings on their job, relationship with boss and coworkers, ideologies on work
l)
Life changing events – when did they happen? Why
did they happen? Effect on the character.
As you write fragments of the back story are revealed in
parts of the story.
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