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Q&A How much of a character's past/background should I let on?

You can (and probably should) tell your characters' background stories, but you should also ask yourself a question - "would it make my book better?" There are a few rules that I think are importa...

posted 7y ago by Alexander‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:35:20Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/28513
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Alexander‭ · 2019-12-08T06:35:20Z (almost 5 years ago)
You can (and probably should) tell your characters' background stories, but you should also ask yourself a question - "would it make my book better?"

There are a few rules that I think are important:

- A backstory should be interesting by itself;
- A backstory should be relevant to the main plot, or at least provide some important answers to the questions the reader would have about the characters;
- Backstories should not hijack the main storyline.

If done right, background stories would provide much help with character development.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-06-06T00:33:02Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 5