Backstory Generator

What a backstory is for

A backstory is not a biography. It is the part of a character's past that is still active in the present of the story: the event that made them who they are, and the habit or fear it left behind. Each result here gives you exactly that, in three beats: a childhood, a turning point and a lasting effect. Anything beyond these beats is optional until the story needs it.

The strongest backstories are never explained all at once. Readers enjoy working things out from a gesture or a refusal, so a character who keeps a bag packed by the door tells the reader more than a paragraph about a fire that took the house.

Using a backstory without lecturing

Choose where the past enters the story. The usual options are a flashback, a conversation, an object and a reaction. A reaction is usually best: show the character flinching at a certain song, and let the reader ask why. Save the full explanation for the point at which the story needs the reader to understand a decision.

The line that begins "they have never told anyone about" in some results is a gift to the plot. It sets up a reveal. Decide who will hear the secret first, what they will do with it, and what it costs the character to say it aloud. A secret that stays untold for the whole book is a decoration, but one that comes out at the right moment changes every scene around it.

Finally, check that the past explains the present, not the other way round. If the backstory is only there to excuse a behaviour, the reader will feel it. Let it make the behaviour more specific, and let the character have at least one trait that does not come from their past at all.

Backstory and the first chapter

Resist the urge to open with the past. Readers care about a character's history only after they care about the character, so place the first glimpse of the backstory about a quarter of the way through, as a reaction or a single line. Then add one more piece at each turning point. By the end the reader should have all of it, but never all at once. A useful test is to ask what the reader would lose if a given piece of backstory were cut. If the answer is nothing, it belongs in your notes, not in the book.

Ten example backstories

• Loss Raised by a grandmother who ran a boarding house. When they were nine, a fire took the house and everything in it. To this day they keep a bag packed by the door.
• Guilt Born above a pawn shop in a port town. Everything changed when they let a friend take the blame. They have never told anyone about the night of the fire, and to this day they pay for other people's meals in secret.
• Exile Grew up in a lighthouse keeper's cottage. When they were twelve, they crossed a border at night with a single bag. To this day they never fully unpack.
• Ambition Brought up by an aunt who never said what the job was. The turning point came when they were fifteen: they taught themselves a craft from stolen books. To this day they refuse to be underestimated.
• Hidden truth Raised in a monastery kitchen. When they were sixteen, they opened a locked drawer and found a stranger's letters. To this day they check the names on every document, and they have never told anyone about the key they still carry.
• Loss Born in a mountain village with one road. Everything changed when a flood washed the village away in a single night. They have never told anyone about the promise they made at the grave, and to this day they never name a pet.
• Guilt A doctor's child in a village that distrusted doctors. When they were seventeen, they stole money that was meant for the village. To this day they cannot look at certain kinds of fire.
• Exile Raised in a travelling troupe. The turning point came when they were twenty: they were exiled for something their family had done. To this day they speak the old language only in their sleep.
• Ambition Grew up at a stall in a city market. When they were fourteen, they started a business with a borrowed coin. To this day they work three hours longer than anyone else, and they have never told anyone about the debt they inherited.
• Hidden truth A scholarship child in a school full of rich ones. Everything changed when they learned that someone had been paying for their schooling in secret. They have never told anyone about the stranger who helped them, and to this day they distrust any story without gaps.