How Your Character's BACKSTORY Changes EVERYTHING

what's up my friend Abbi here and welcome back to writers life wednesdays and another episode the final episode actually in the series how to craft relatable and addictive characters in Episode one we talked about how to start your character profile off the right way with a no-nonsense questionnaire and in Episode two we discussed internal conflict the thing that grips your readers on the first page and will hold their attention through the rest of the entire book so if you haven't seen those first two episodes I highly recommend watching those first because you need a good solid foundation in order to create a truly epic character and this is the third step out of three third out of three yep you can find the links to those previous videos in the description box below so today we're gonna dive deep into your character's backstory and uncover a moment that happened a long time ago before your novel even began a moment that changed everything okay so you've already developed your characters desire fear and misbelief but you might be experiencing a little fuzziness when you think about it all because you don't know where this desire fear and misbelief came from and that is where backstory comes in it's time to dig down to the root of where this desire fear and misbelief came from there is a pivotal moment in your characters past where their worldview changed for the worse they made a decision in the downloading stages of their youth they decided this is how the world is now they've spent their lives holding on to this misbelief and it's kept them from achieving true happiness and blinded them to what will really make them feel successful for our example today we're going to use the brilliantly crafted story It's a Wonderful Life if you haven't seen this movie what are you doing with your life from the start it's pretty clear what our protagonist George Bailey wants to travel the world do great things build bridges and skyscrapers essentially make a big impact on the world what is his greatest fear getting stuck in Bedford Falls living an ordinary life and not making an impact on the world whatsoever like his father ooh that's the clencher so let's go back and find that back story scene that changed everything for George and your backstory scene that changed everything for your character so by now your character profile should be looking pretty darn good with part 1 and part 2 of the questionnaire in there hopefully filled out with a bunch of juicy details about your character and now it's time for part three the last set of questions so I like to title this section the backstory scene that changed everything so original write the scene where you fill in the blank the backstory scene that changed everything for George Bailey is the scene where he goes to ask his father for advice about something and interrupts a meeting at the building and loan what does your character go into the scene believing and how are they surprised by the outcome everybody believes something and our beliefs are usually based off what our senses tell us is true so what has your character confirmed is true at this point in their lives even if they're a little kid they can have strong beliefs so ask yourself what do they believe is true right before their beliefs are shattered what George believes is that his father is kind of invincible he looks up to his dad and can't imagine anyone undermining him especially this creepy old dude on a power trip obviously the reality of the situation is a little surprising how does your character struggle to hold on to their old beliefs when our hard-won beliefs are questioned by new experiences and feelings and ideas we a feel exposed B feel afraid and C tried desperately to hold on to our old beliefs so your character isn't gonna be proven wrong and then be like huh I guess that wasn't true after all no they're going to struggle to come to grips with the facts so back to It's a Wonderful Life when mr. Baily politely removes George from his office George is clearly struggling to understand why his father is letting himself be beaten and bullied so easily he doesn't want to believe this newfound truth but he's going to have to in a minute and finally last question what is their conclusion in their new belief this is it the pivotal moment the moment that your character realizes they were wrong and their new belief settles in to stay of course their new belief has to be totally messed up because when they have their aha moment at the end of the story another revelation dawns on your character and at last they see the truth as George watched his father be undermined by this creepy old dude his small conflicted brain quickly decided he would never live that kind of life he would never stay in Bedford Falls get married have kids work for this building alone and live an ordinary life but what does he end up doing staying in Bedford Falls getting married having kids working for this building alone and living an ordinary life well that didn't go according to plan what makes it's a wonderful life such a compelling story is how George's misbelief is proven wrong when he has the opportunity to see what the world would be like if he never existed he realizes that he actually has made an impact more than he could even imagine by living an ordinary life so this is what you need to do with your characters take this last set of questions and start digging through your character's past looking for the root of their problematic worldview this is so important because it's going to create the deepest and most dynamic conflict for your story the electricity we keep talking about your story is gonna be so full of electricity step like danger electrocution signs all over it now go back and write the full scene as if it was actually in your book seriously you might be like whoa I was not expecting to write anything from a little kids point of view but honestly we're all little kids at heart your character is still mentally in the same place so this this belief might have sprouted a long long time ago but to your character it's as clear and fresh in their mind as if they just made a decision about it yesterday why because again and again over the years or even decades this character has kept their misbelief strong by acting upon it again and again and again making decisions based on this messed-up worldview and destroying their chances of happiness now you're thinking are you gonna make me go write full scenes about every single time the character made a decision based on this misbelief and further cemented it as a truth yes actually I am going to tell you to do that you don't have to write about every single event cuz there could very well be hundreds but I would suggest writing at least three scenes of backstory in addition to the pivotal moment scene where your character made a decision based on their misbelief write these scenes for your protagonist but also for your antagonist and you might even find some fun places where their stories can kind of overlap and merge remember your antagonist did not start out bad they just got lost along the way in fact they might be exactly like your protagonists the only difference is their solution to their problems is a lot less heroic and a lot more selfish thus making them a villain but see please figure out what exactly made them a villain you might end up including some of this backstory in your actual story but if you don't no worries it is not a waste of time like I said at the beginning of the series you have to know your characters inside out and upside down it pays off if you know your characters really really really really well you will make your readers feel like they know them that well too and that is the key to creating relatable and addictive characters that's it boom you have the tools now go use them the link to the questions we went over today is in the description of this video go get them grab them copy and paste them into your character profiles start filling this stuff out and you get obsessed with backstory my dude it is so much fun I hope you liked this video in this whole series and if you did please smash that like button comment below and tell me on a scale of 1 to me how much do you love backstory literally this novel that I'm currently outlining I have written 25,000 words of backstory and I don't even know if any of it is gonna be in the actual book but you don't have to be that extra I'm just a little crazy anyway subscribe to this channel if you haven't already I post writing videos every Wednesday and I would love to have you here in the community so that we can continue to write epic books together books that belong on the top of the New York Times bestseller list dream big stay invincible and rock on [Music]

Channel: Abbie Emmons

Views: 81,598

Keywords: backstory, writing, author, tips, advice, ya fiction, outlining, plotting, character, arcs, development, abbie emmons, abbiee

Id: jCaTGGMlXuM

Length: 8min 54sec (534 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 26 2018