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I have started to realize recently that backstory makes the character so much deeper and makes the story more meaningful. Now this character isn’t just in the present, they have a past, and it affects them deeply as they move into the future.

One thing we have to watch out for, though, is to make this cause-and-effect tool deep and genuine and unique all its own. Just like watching out for cliches and tropes that we insert just because we’re lazy, we may need to put thought into these past events that influence these motivations, so that the embittered guy who lost his wife to a tragedy isn’t just another embittered character who lost his wife to a tragedy. Whatever we place in, it needs to count.

All intentional-ness aside, backstory pretty much comes naturally to me as brainstorming does, as most people have mentioned. It will be a task for me to take my own advice and make what backstory I have original, but hopefully I can get there 🙂