Getting into Your Character's Backstory

Hi everyone,
 Sometimes getting into a character's backstory can be tricky. Sometimes you know the character's backstory well and other times you have no idea what their backstory is like...


Review the facts you know about the character
This can be quite helpful, especially if you made a character bio (with information like name, age etc.). Do they have any relatives? If so, are their relatives still alive or are they deceased? Are they the last living relative or person in the family?  Do they have any siblings? And, if they do, do they know about them or are they really close to their sibling?

After you review the facts here are some things that may be helpful to write down...

What is your character doing? 

Before they got to where they are (in the current story) what location were they in? 

How old were they? (The age may remain the same depending on how far apart the backstory is from the current story.) 

Did they have any bad habits that they got rid of before the current story? (Such as biting their nails, etc.) 

Did they have a past job? 

I recommend (if you feel comfortable doing this) being in a quiet room, and asking your characters the questions out loud. Basically you will be talking back and forth to yourself (pretending to be your character).

Seeing the backstory 
Knowing what the back story is, is good, but seeing it is even better.
What I mean by seeing the backstory, is being able to experience or see the character's back story.

That is why either drawing a scene from your character's backstory:

This is a drawing of Celtiere 

or making a character collage (which I have done before both in The Character Karaoke Tag, and Getting Characters onto Paper (part 2) ) is helpful to get a clear idea of the scene.
 This time when creating a character collage you are
  using images to create a vidid idea of a scene (instead of portraying a character's personality):

(original images from,
Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapestry#/media/File:The_Hunt_of_the_Unicorn_Tapestry_1.jpg,
wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael#/media/File:Raphael_colonna_01.jpg,
Wiki Commons , https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Crowns#/media/File:St._Johann_Johannes_B%C3%BCste_Krone.jpg,
wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle#/media/File:Bodiam-castle-10My8-1197.jpg,
wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland#/media/File:Glendalough.jpg,
wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_(mythology)#/media/File:Phoenix-Fabelwesen.jpg )

          This collage shows some details from Celtiere's childhood, such as his pet phoenix, Fire, and his home, the castle, and the countryside of Ireland (where his story takes place).



Getting to know the other people from the past 
This means getting to know the people who your character could have known from their past.
They must have met someone (unless of course they were locked away somewhere, far from buildings, and civilization).
It could be a  friend from the past who betrayed them, or it could even be their arch nemesis, or even a trustworthy friend who stayed with them (it doesn't always have to be betrayal) and is now a character in the current story.

Here is a form for your character (if you are having trouble thinking about what they are like).

Name: 

Age: 

Interaction with the main character: 

Powers (if any): 

Friend of foe?: 

Rank in society:  

Personality Traits: 

Physical traits: 


After you fill out the form (assuming you want to), I would recommend doing the same things you did with your main characters, such as talking to them or even walking like them. Even if they are minor character you should know what they are like because if you didn't you wouldn't know how they would react in a certain situation in your story.

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I hope you enjoyed reading the post and I hope this was helpful to you.

Do you have any other tips or ideas that help you get into your character's backstory? 

Also do you like my ideas and tips? 

Love,
Quinley