Using Backstory to Create Character Need
by Mary Kole | Former literary agent, now a freelance editor, writing teacher, and IP/story developer for major publishers and creators.
Crafting an enticing fictional character means making some creative decisions about how to incorporate and express the idea of character need. Usually, backstory and flashback are the main tools you can use to identify for readers why your character has certain wants or needs that will drive them throughout your story.
You want readers to connect with your protagonist, so your job is to provide enough backstory to get them vested without going into too much detail about the forces that created the character need for your protagonist.
How to Express Character Need
Your goal as a writer should be to place the fewest yet most effective elements in your narrative without overwrought writing to explain every aspect of your character. For instance, show readers that it’s the first day of school or that your protagonist has just moved to a new place—and let them draw their own conclusions about what your character is experiencing based on the context you introduce.
You also want to make sure that you don’t start with too much backstory right away—a long narrative about a character’s past is not the right approach for how to begin a novel. Rather than taking the reader out of the present moment and explaining “we’ve been best friends since kindergarten,” focus on what is happening now and show the relationship between the characters (classic showing vs. telling in writing) and any character need that arises from the situation you’re putting in your plot.
Use Backstory to Show Character Need
When you’re writing a backstory, ask yourself if it answers the question: “What does this character need, and why should I care about it? Why do they want what they want? Where did this character need or character motivation come from?”
Most people—and characters—have formative experiences that define them. Their pasts determine their futures. But take your time in terms of how you get there. Introduce the backstory starting in the second or third chapters, because you ideally want to start your first chapter in action and in the present moment.
Make sure the backstory follows a balance of action and information, scene, and dialogue. It’s okay to back off from giving readers absolutely everything you know about the character; some of that knowledge can either be revealed later or remain on the cutting room floor. Not everything you develop, for example with a character profile worksheet, will end up in the final manuscript. Illustrate the character need through both present action and backstory.
To make sure your story isn’t faulted or judged as being slow-moving when you give us a scene or paragraph of backstory, surround those flashbacks and informational bits with action, scene, and dialogue. Flashbacks to scenes and memories that flesh out your protagonist, as well as the other characters, are helpful then. But remember, these need to be impactful. The fewer and briefer your flashbacks, the better.
Counteract the drag of dense information up with something dynamic. And make sure that your character need and character objective are clear—and only grow clearer and more focused—as the protagonist moves through the story and pursues what they want.
It's all right to leave elements aside when focusing more on action and confrontation at the start of the story rather than deep character need backgrounds.
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