Many of the stories I make have a long-ass backstory. At first I thought it was the main character that needed an indepth backstory, but that’s not true at all. He should have some baggage, sure, but the history shouldn’t necessarily be explored. All characters deserves a past, so we as writers know what we are writing about, so the characters words and actions speaks true. However, some plot important characters need a more indepth look.

For instance, the MC comes to an island (for one reason or another). There’s a woman there alone. We must know what she’s doing there. This is easy if there’s just one life to explore, thus just one story, but in fantasy, it often spawns generations. She’s a witch, she has been on the island for hundreds of years, and before her, there was another witch, which had also lived there for untold generations. Suddenly I have another book, or at least another short story to explore.

If one should show this backstory is another matter entirely, but how detailed should such stories be? I know I work in waves, like, every iteration becomes more and more complex and I try my hardest not to write anything that hasn’t anything to do with the plot before the plot is finished. It’s after that I start adding descriptions, scenes and dialogue. Needless to say, it becomes pretty meaty even with my best attempts, and then there is no problem making it into a proper story.

The reader shouldn’t have a problem understanding the Main story without the backstory and should only serve to bring life to it. But what if one presented the backstory afterwards, kinda like an annex? It seems to me it would be such a shame to hide the backstory I’ve worked so hard on.

Thank you for reading.

If you would like to read some of my stories you can find my latest one HERE!