Mining the Backstory

Issue #45, Putting Meat on the Bones 2

(This is the second in a five-part series, leading writers through the stages from ideas to drafting to a finished, published tale. For context, read Writing Rhythm Issue #44 before this post.)

So what comes first, the character or the story?

The issue is rhetorical, of course. I generally come up with story before character, but sometimes characters lead the way. As you’ve no doubt guessed, the starting place for this series with old Southern men on rocking chairs (Issue #44 ) is one of the latter and not the former.

Let’s consider this reddit-thread question:

“Has anyone ever made characters first, and plot second?”

Most of the respondents thought that this is indeed a valid order in which to create fiction. A user with the handle reialance wisely added:

“I'd rephrase it as character first, conflict second.”

Problem is, as a second peek at my backstory reveals, there’s no conflict here. And as implied in Issue #13 and Issue #44, you can’t have a guy simply sitting and writing poems and call it a story.

Photo by Sylvester Sabo on Unsplash

Last post I suggested studying the elements of backstory to see if any storyline ideas occur to you. Let’s get into this concept deeper and really mine that backstory, starting by considering:

Adding Exterior and Interior Conflict & Motivation

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Inner and Exterior Conflict was covered in Writing Rhythm Issue #13, and Inner and Exterior Motivation was covered in Writing Rhythm Issue #43.

In this case, the exterior conflict would be an as-yet unknown mystery angle for John, our retired detective, to solve. His external motivation, then—his want—would be aimed at the goal of cracking that case (Writing Rhythm Issues #41 & #42). But what do we know so far about his backstory that might lead us to a satisfying interior conflict and ensuing motivation—or need?

(Here is another pic I saved to keep the images up front in my mind, a tip I mentioned earlier.)

In the backstory I’d decided that John is reclusive and writes poetry by his lonesome in sight of a bayou. Maybe, I imagined, he’s suffering a bit of PTSD from years on duty as a detective. Maybe I could amp up his romantic attachment to the bayou, so that when shady business occurs there he’d be drawn to resolve it not only for external but also internal reasons: to make sure the place remains untainted for him, and as a kind of emotional redemption for a death-filled career.

Up to here I’d managed to only use the “facts” I’d already written about John, but you should always keep this in mind:

If All Else Fails…Revise Your Backstory

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If you’ve written yourself into that proverbial corner, remember: it’s easy to get out. It’s your creation, and hey, it’s fiction. If you have to tweak elements of your backstory to make story happen, it’s all fair.

In this case, I later realized that John can’t really be quite as reclusive as I’d painted him at first or we’d have no other characters with whom he could interact. Which meant no suspects for whatever crime was still to be written.

Here is the same backstory, rewritten with neighbors dreamed up and inserted (although I still had no idea of how they’d figure in the story). I’ve also noted the source of John’s inner conflict, and emphasized his affection for the bayou:

So far so good. The backstory is mined and refined, rewritten and amended to suggest an interior conflict. Of course, we’re still far from having arrived at a storyline. Next issue I’ll show how the backstory led to plot…after a ton of questions and a certain epiphany.

Only one more question for this post, and it’s about vocabulary. We’ve got two words this time, mentioned earlier in context because they so often go together, one later than the other.

What is the difference between latter and former?

Action Plan

On X (formerly Twitter), I post a new daily rhyming writing tip on which many of these issues are based. Follow—you know you want to.

Next Up

46) Letting A Character Tell his Story, Putting Meat on the Bones 3. See you in two weeks!

Craig