THE BACKSPLASH OF A STORY
BLOG POST EIGHT | ELEMENTS OF WRITINGDISCLAIMER:
To embody the reality of the thought process there may be discontinuity within a blog post and strands of incomplete thoughts.
These are small compilation of the character’s past experiences that dims the lights and set the stage for the plot. The backstory is similar to prelude to a song because it is a brief introduction that segues into the beginning of a longer piece of the plot known as the main story. It shows everything that happened prior to the point in which the readers are introduced to the character. Essentially, it sets the precedent that reveals to the readers the underlying reasons that explains the character’s decisions, emotion, and behavior. It’s the binding force that that attracts the character’s to the plot as it is undergoing construction and development. As mentioned above, the backstory reveals the motive for the characters behavior and provides the reader’s perspective of the nature of the character. Think of the backstory as hinges on a door as it play a vital role in the movement, or opening and closing of doors of the character in the story. It allows the characters to oscillate back-and-forth between the plot and the past to establish their presence in the story. The backstory should be fed to the reader in small doses of dialogues, subsequent events, or flashback to reel the reader in. It should be distributed throughout different scenes to help readers gain a better understanding of the character. Next week, I’ll introducing a character from a project I'm currently working on. It’s a short synopsis about the character using the same technique I introduced in this week blog.
Please refer to Blog Post Nine & Blog Post Ten to see short examples of writing a character’s backstories.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK?
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“Elsy Bayard is a 24 year old art major at Cobblestone University located in northern Pennsylvania. Read more to find out the danger she faces when she returns home during Winter Break.”