The Backstory
Want to help your audience relate to the characters in your story? Include a few specific details of their backstory.
I was recently on vacation with my niece and nephew. We had planned this for months, and I had a vision for all the places we would visit, the things we would do, and the special memories we would create. One of those was taking them to a restaurant I thought they would enjoy. But as their eyes grew wide when the waiter insisted on giving them a tour of the fresh fish on ice, I realized I had made a mistake.
I didn’t want the night to be a bust. So, I looked at the other dinner guests and pointed out a woman who was wearing a big, flouncy cream-colored hat on her head.
“See that? She bought that hat on the first vacation she took after her divorce. The hat was a symbol to her of freedom and adventure.”
“How do you know that?” my niece asked.
“I don’t. I’m giving her a backstory. That table over there? They are a group that plays Dungeons and Dragons each week. They are meeting up for a holiday dinner celebration. Now you give it a try.”
“The guy with the red hair? He is a history teacher who walks with a limp.”
It was a little vague, but it worked. History teachers do have a certain vibe. And the limp made the description even more visceral. It makes you picture one of your history teachers, doesn’t it?
The next day, as we waited in a long line, I asked them, “What type of people do you think we’re going to see today?” My niece said “Someone with nine toes! They used to work at Medieval Times and lost their toe in a jousting accident.”
I have never been prouder.
Backstories create understanding
Characters move stories forward through the conflict they have with themselves or others. The more we understand and connect with them, the more engaged we are in the story. A great way to do that is to make them relatable. We want to know who the characters are and why they do what they do—even if we don’t agree with them.
A backstory can help create a broader understanding of a character. These don’t need to be extensive. A few descriptive sentences suggest who they are and their role in the story. Our brains naturally make assumptions to create understanding. The specificity in the backstory nudges our brain to fill in the rest. The more specific the details, the better our understanding.
For example, if I tell you that Amy was locked in the university library while studying on a Friday night, what does that make you think? Probably not that she was a party animal. More likely, your brain fills in the gaps that she was a serious student so engrossed in her studies that she didn’t notice the lights flickering or the library closing. That one phrase gives you an idea of Amy’s character and creates the context for how she might act in the story.
If I describe Jaden as coming from the fruitcake capital of the U.S., you likely aren’t picturing him living in a big city like Los Angeles. You probably picture a small town of a few thousand people with three stoplights. You may even visualize a weird statue of a fruitcake in the town center. (For the record, the fruitcake capital is in Claxton, Georgia—shoutout to Lesley Butcher for bringing that to my knowledge).
Backstories give context to characters, especially in work stories
A few sentences of backstory are such a great tool in aiding in the understanding of our characters and the story. Especially in work stories: The person who got straight-As, someone who has lived in five different countries, the manager who gets their inbox to zero messages each day, the colleague who is chronically five minutes late, the person who is one of thirteen siblings, an employee who reads forty-seven books in a year… each of these details nudge your brain into making assumptions about those individuals. Which you can then build and reinforce through the events of your story.
The next time you tell a story, weave in a few specific details about your characters. Prompt the audience to better understand your characters and use their brain to fill in the gaps and finish the thought. It will create a more memorable and engaging story. I pinky swear.
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