Backstory. It’s the best tool you have to develop relatable, realistic, three-dimensional characters for your novel. Sketching out a backstory is not the sexiest part of writing a novel. Investigating motivations, creating genealogies, understanding the socio-political landscape of the world you’re creating— that’s pretty heavy stuff, especially since most of it won’t even make it into your novel.
A backstory is the history of the character. It addresses the following:
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- Who the character is
- Why the character is the way he or she is