NaNoWriMo

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November is NaNoWriMo, or (inter)National Novel Writing Month. Particpants attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days!
NaNoWriMo's official site can be found here: www.nanowrimo.org/en/dashboard
Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? If so, comment! We'd love to pimp out your NaNo in our blog-
I'm sorry I didn't mention this earlier, I got so caught up in participating, that I forgot to mention it.
It's not entirely too late to catch up and get in the game- if you're a hardcore writer who is looking for a boost, or you need to finish your novel NaNoWriMo is the perfect inscentive!

We'd also love to have a write in with you guys in our group chatroom, but we need to know what international timeline members fall under so that we can schedule something that will be convienient for as many participants as possible. It'll be great. We'll chat, write, and maybe someone will randomly get a few points. :eyes:

Tips & Tricks- Backstory


Last month, we asked you about Backstory-The question with backstory is always, how much? When does it matter? Do you write some backstory for all your characters or only the major ones?
I'm very happy to say that we had several responses!
So, if you've had trouble with backstory, take a read. :D
:iconrakaseth:
A wall of text appears!

Backstoy is all about where your characters came from and why that makes them do the things they do. Their history will affect how they think and act, and so it is important to come up with something believable. Try to avoid the cliches, and keep it fairly subtle. Your characters don't need (and probably shouldn't have) a whole bunch of overly-dramatic events in their past just to make them interesting.

Of course, this doesn't mean you should document every moment of your characters' lives from birth to the start of the story; writing an outline of the important bits, like where they went to school, where they got married, or other major events should suffice. You might also want to include how these events made your characters feel and what other ways they affected them.

In my opinion you should try and give as many characters as possible at least a little bit of back story, whether it's just listing a single important event in their past; this can mean a lot more work, but it also helps keep your characters from becoming stereotypes/stock characters. It's especially important to give a detailed backstory for all of your major characters, including your villain. Stories with well rounded and believable villains are usually a lot more interesting to read, and such villains usually have some kind of history that makes them do the things they do. :mwahaha:

When you get around to divulging your character's backstory, you want to do it right. Avoid just info-dumping the story of their life unless it works well in context; the whole fireside chat in which the mysterious character reveals their traumatic past is a tad overdone, but if you're really set on that kind of thing then go for it. Also consider revealing parts of the backstory throughout the work, like a breadcrumb trail. :hypertype:

You defeated the wall of text! I hope that you found my advice useful; good luck writers!


:iconCACeil: says:
For backstory, only share what is necessary to understand the characters and story. For example, learning Snape's backstory in Harry Potter was essential to understanding that character's motive and purpose. Actually, the entire Harry Potter series is a great example for effective backstory.

It's also nice to learn a bit of backstory on other characters besides the ones we need to know, just don't go into lengthy detail. Remember that every character has a backstory. They don't just pop out of nowhere. Whether or not sharing that character's backstory is up to you, the writer.

Backstory is a great tool in writing. And like any tool you'll only get great results if you know how to use it correctly.

:iconmoosewingz: says:
Now, before I give any opinions, it's probably best that I mention that to me, backstory and character creation are pretty much one and the same. So I might not be so good at defining the two as separate things - but they feed off each other so much that I don't think it's necessary.

I think the place to start when considering the question of backstory is to think about where in their timeline your character(s) are when your actual story begins. Your protagonist(s) are most important; start with them. If they join the narrative (or the narrative joins them) when they're two years old, then chances are that you won't have much backstory - of course, as with Harry Potter, there could be some particularly dramatic event that will have huge repercussions on everything that this character (and possibly everyone else) does, but they're not going to have had the chance to achieve much. But if your lead hero is already 157 years (eleven months and twelve days) old when we meet him, then it's probably a good idea to work out - even if it's just for yourself, and his past remains a mystery to your readers - how he got to this point.

The thing about backstory is that it's about character development. Of course this is something that mainly happens throughout your actual narrative, otherwise your characters would be boring and pretty one-dimensional. But backstory can define how your characters develop. Look at it this way: a few chapters into the novel, our heroine, Princess Hibiscus, loses her brother when he is eaten by a giant cat. This is clearly a moment that is going to change her personality and her outlook on life, but depending on her backstory, it could affect her in very different ways. Maybe she and her brother (let's call him Jeremy) were twins, and they grew up with only each other in a series of foster homes, after a wicked witch stole them away from their home in the palace? Whether they liked each other or not, Hibiscus has just lost the one stable thing she had in her life - will she react by finding something else to cling to? Does she feel abandoned and bitter towards her brother's memory? Has she lost her only stabilising influence and goes on a gory rampage of death and destruction until she can pull out that nasty kitty's claws one by one? Or was her brother older than her and always putting her down, taking the spotlight, and now - and maybe she feels guilty about this - she can finally feel free and able to make her own way in the world? The possibilities are endless.

Alright, maybe this is all obvious, but it's worth keeping in mind. Of course, you could argue that a character's reaction to such a situation would be defined by their personality - but remember, their backstory will define (or at the very least, contribute heavily towards) your character's personality. Why are your characters the way they are? Why are they stuck in their ways or easily changeable? Why is your hero(ine) on this quest in the first place? Why is your villain set on taking over the world?

A backstory gives your character motivation, and puts meaning behind their actions. This is especially important for your villain - no one is just born evil (unless they are in your fantasy world, of course) so there must be a reason for whatever terror they're unleashing on innocent villagers this week. Protagonist(s) also need a starting point for their development throughout your story. Not everyone needs a backstory, but if there is a particular thing about them that defines them (even really minor characters) then maybe just make a quick decision about why they think that way? If you don't have a reason, then there's a risk that this character isn't going to be very believable. :)

Finally (SORRY THIS IS SO LONG GUYS) it's important to remember that you don't have to tell your readers the backstory! Just because you've thought up all these amazing scenarios that explain all the facets of their personality doesn't make it relevant to the progression of your narrative. However, knowing where your characters have come from will help you keep them consistent and deep throughout your story! The more you know about your characters, the better you'll write them, the more people will enjoy them!


:iconbluewyrm:
If you're not in the habit of doing backstories, you really should. It can be fun to write from the point of view of someone you know nothing about, but it makes it a lot, lot harder to weave an intricate plot.

One of the things I see less experienced authors do a lot is try to treat a backstory as if it's an entire novel of its own. If there's a complicated story that occurs in a character's past and is at all plot relevant, it is a part of the story, and should be written as a part of the story!!! "Her mother got killed by wolves and then her father was killed by imperial soldiers and then her crazy brother burned the house down because the soldiers told him to and he tried to kill her too but she got him first, but then she had no home and lived in a cave until the soldiers found her and raped her..." is not acceptable. That's a story in and of itself! Even if you're writing for an online audience, at least have the decency to write it out as a story, not an overly long paragraph of summary!

Note - I actually saw a backstory with basically the same events as above... just with slightly shorter sentences.


If you start In Media Res (That's 'starting the narrative halfway through the story') this is a little less important, but you still need a detailed outline to build from - it just doesn't need to be in a story format.

I personally give all my characters some sort of backstory, even if it's only "Likes x,y, and z; dislikes a and b; Interacted with these other characters in this way in the past" because it keeps things organized. Major characters end up with an extremely detailed backstory (Including the year and sometimes month events happened) to avoid contradicting myself later in the text.

It helps to think of backstory as a cohesive whole - characters don't live in a vacuum! I actually write the story of the world they live in before I add in the characters... but that might not work for everyone.

When you're writing speculative fiction (Most sci-fi and some fantasy) where the world is very different from your own, you need to figure out how the past was before you can build the present state.


Anyway, on to a few examples!

FANTASY:
World:
-It's like our own, but there are angels, fallen angels, demons, vampires, zombies, ghosts, Fair Folk, lots more
-The story is set in a city - Baltimore.
-Several years ago, in the '80s or '90s, a dangerous demon broke in and mucked things up. He was killed. The demon is why the protagonist came to the city.
-Most of the supernatural critters are pretty different from the stereotypes (again with the 'I wrote myself a three-page paper on the differences'. Unless you're really dedicated, that is overkill...)
-Fallen Angels are not demons; they're angels that did something bad and have to spend a sentence on Earth with some sort of karma related curse instead of without. Greedy demons are gluttonous but have to stop gluttons etc.

Main Char:
Is a fallen angel of Murder and... something else. Was cursed to roam Earth, unable to die. Carries one cursed weapon that causes death and one that gives second chances. Is a member of the Baltimore police force. A rookie got killed on his first job during the demon attack ( bluewyrm.deviantart.com/art/De…</shameless self-promotion>*), so he's always really careful to keep his 'buddy cop' out of trouble. He's a little overprotective.

etc.


* I do this on the 'official' char sheets too... It's really helpful to be able to pull up stuff like that at a moments notice. The link, not the self-promotion bit...

Anyway, that's basically how I do backstories. If it's not relevant to the plot or the character, don't leave it there (except if it's some little quirk. Those can be fun to mess with for background details)

Know your characters inside and out. It helps make them more consistent and realistic, as long as you don't take it too far.

I'll throw in a little on char creation just for fun: I come up with some basic concept (Ninja who has black Justin Bieber hair and hater shades!) work through a story, decide the character should be a little different (He's actually a demon! Let's ditch the ninja suit!) add a few other characters (A Angel! Who drinks lots of coffee and sings!) then figure out more about the why things are the way they are. (Yes, that was literally how I wrote the example character. I really have no idea how it happened...) The whole process is really the same as the backstory creation.

</walloftext>

Oh yeah - forgot to mention - all this is for you, not your reader. (Any short stories about the backround excluded, of course...)
It's better not to mention things unless you're forshadowing something that will be important or it's just come up in the story. No need to know your character plays violin unless it turns out to be mildly relevant to the story.

Adreil
Sometimes you already know the back stories for all your characters, sometime you don't. My advice would be, definitely have a back story for your major characters! Even if you never write it down for anyone else to see, you need to know it!
If you character's parents were remote, it's more than likely that you're character is going to be remote too, not outgoing and bubbly and chirpy. Having a back story helps you keep your character in line, helps you know how they'll react, and sometimes even starts a new plot you hadn't thought of.
Major character's must have a back story.
On the other hand, minor characters may or may not have a back story. I like to know a few things about where they've come from and where they're going but you don't want to overdo the information and the chances are you may find yourself with a lot of very developed characters confusing your reader. Pick out minor character that may have a big impact on your main character and the overall plot. Those are the ones you really want to know about.
The second challenge comes in divulging back stories. Some stuff the reader does need to know. Some stuff will only complicate things.
Some people may remember JK Rowling doing an interview where she talked about some of the back stories of the Harry Potter Characters. A friend of mine who was watching complained that she hadn't included it in the books. When I said to her... 'where would she have put it without ruining the flow?' my friend stopped and realised i was right. Although your fans may want to know this stuff, the book/manuscript may not be the right place to divulge it.
And besides, readers like to make up a few of their own things anyway. Let them fill in some of the gaps and just allude to certain events in their past. That makes a truly fantastic script!

This Month's Tips & Tricks



As it's NaNoWriMo, this month- we have to include it in our Tips & Tricks! :D
So, my question for you is-
How do you push yourself to finish your NaNo, or if you haven't participated- any novel?



And other news....


Make sure to keep an eye out for thorns chat tour! It's a lot of fun, and I haven't been able to make her last stops, but her times are really freindly for those of you in North America. :D
Also, we've recently affiliated with :iconliteratureforpoints: so if you're offering literature commissions, they're there for you!
We have also entirely closed off</b> the 'Featured Folder' We'd like this folder to become a best of, or perhaps store work we've featured. Please sumbit to the correct gallery, and if you feel there is a gallery that we are not supporting, tell us, we're here for you. :)

That's all! Happy Writing!

I, personally, have 1,440 more words to get to today, so Au Revoir!
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fiction-goddess's avatar
Im a little behind on my schedule, since its my first time doing it, but i think im at 2,500 words only :( I need to get more motivation