Note: These chapters I'm writing on backstory are based off of a fantastic book I'm reading called "Build Better Characters", by Eileen Cook. She's a counselor and a writer who approaches character-building from a psychological standpoint. The group she works with, Creative Academy, has a whole website of resources for writers at https://creativeacademyforwriters.com/.

On the first chapter of this part, I gave some basic questions that you need to know in order to understand your character well. But that's not all. There are finer details about backstory that you need to know in order to get a better gauge on how your character reacts in certain situations. You probably won't use all the backstory you know in your book. However, the more you know about your character, the more you'll be able to accurately make them feel like a real person, and the relevant aspects of their backstory will be very important in assessing their motives.

There are a lot of questions you should ask your character when you first begin to delve into their dirty secrets. So let's break them up into some categories. These questions were taken from the book mentioned in the author's note and are often used in counseling interviews. Don't worry if the answers are long. Ask your character and listen for their answer, and let it flow from their lips naturally until you sense they're done talking. (They will answer, I promise.) This will also give you an opportunity to practice listening to their voice and how they talk, which we'll discuss more later.

Family:

■ What were your parents like? 

■ Do you have any siblings? 

■ Where are you in the birth order of your family? (Oldest child, middle child, etc.)

■ Did you get along with your parents? With your family?

Race/Ethnicity:

■ What is your racial and ethnic background? (Remember to do your research if you're unfamiliar with a culture.)

■ What role, if any, does your culture play in your life?

■ Are there cultural traditions that are important to you?

■ What would your cultural background say about the situation you're currently in?

For Immigrants:

■ When did you immigrate to this country?

■ Did you immigrate on your own or with a family group?

■ What circumstances led up to your decision to immigrate?

■ How do you feel about your new country?

Finances:

■ How would you describe your family's financial situation as a kid?

■ How is your current financial situation?

■ Do you have any debt?

■ What is your relationship with money?

■ Would you describe yourself as a saver or a spender?

■ Has that changed over the course of your life?

Marriage and Relationships:

■ Are you currently married or in a long-term relationship?

■ Have you ever been married? (If yes, how did that relationship end?)

■ If you've had a series of relationships, how have these begun and/or ended?

■ What is your sexuality and gender identity? How does it affect you societally and in relationships?

Friends and Social Support:

■ Tell me about your friends.

■ Do you belong to a church?

■ Do you belong to other organizations (ex: writer's groups, clubs, etc.)?

■ Do you regularly volunteer at any organizations? If so, which ones?

■ Do you have someone to turn to if you face challenges?

Perception of Relationships:

■ How do you get along with the people in your life?

■ For people you've fallen out with, why do you think that's happened?

■ Have the relationships in your life changed over time?

■ How would your friends describe you?

■ How would a co-worker describe you?

■ Who do you go to when there are challenges?

Religion:

■ Did you grow up with a particular faith?

■ Would you describe yourself as religious?

■ If you don't practice any particular organized religion, would you describe yourself as spiritual (believing in some outside/otherworldly force)?

■ How important are your beliefs to your everyday life?

■ How would your religion view the situation you're currently in?

Education

■ What is your level of education?

■ What do you see as your areas of strength and weakness?

■ In what ways would you describe yourself as knowledgable?

■ Would you consider yourself a "lifelong learner"?

■ Have you taken any courses or learned anything new in the past few years?

■ Did you enjoy school?

■ Do you have any learning disabilities?

■ What do you do for joy?

■ How do you spend your free time?

■ Are you able to drive, or have an active drivers' license?

Health & Wellness:

■ What is your overall health?

■ What is your fitness level?

■ What do you do for exercise?

■ Do you have any disabilities?

■ If you have one, describe it and its impact to me.

■ What's been your experience with the healthcare industry?

■ Do you smoke?

■ Are you at a healthy weight?

■ Has there been any change in your health?

Work:

■ Where did you work as a teen?

■ What is your work history?

■ What duties did you do in those jobs?

■ What is the length of time in those roles?

■ Have you ever been promoted?

■ Have you ever been fired? Why?

■ Have you ever quit? Why?

■ How do you get along with your co-workers?

■ How do you get along with managers and supervisors?

■ How do you feel about your current position?

■ Do you like your job?

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Seem like a lot? Don't worry. I find that I tend to answer all these questions when I have my characters monologue about their backstories. Remember that you don't have to use all these questions, but you should absolutely know at least most of them. The more you know, the more you understand how your character would act in a given situation, even if it's never even mentioned in the story.

For example, here's a passage from a backstory monologue I wrote the other day for Shadow Weaver by asking her about her childhood memories. (The whole thing is almost a thousand words long, so I'll spare you.) I asked her several questions about her early life growing up as a wealthy only child in Bel Delvala. The flow is clunky, but that's because this is a monologue, meant to mimic how she speaks. When people speak verbally, they don't edit their words. Besides, this is a free write - it's not like I'm going to edit it.

Q: What is a childhood memory that really sticks out to you?

A: ...I did grow up too soon. The following month, my mother became gravely ill. She'd suffered from several miscarriages after my birth, and I tried not to think about them - those little siblings that could have been, but never were. Yet as time went on, I found that the house was empty with only me in it. It was a source of loneliness - I was a twelve-year-old miracle, experiencing the blossoming of my own breasts and the feminine bleeding that signified I could have children, and yet my mother could not.

Her final miscarriage happened when she was thirty-three. I remembered her loud wailing, how my fingers gripped the banister and I stared up at their room with sorrow. My father took her to the emergency room. There, they removed the dead child and told her that she couldn't have any more children. She underwent surgery to ensure it, and my mother was officially barren. I then decided that I would have children when I grew up. I would make sure that she was a happy grandmother, and my children could be hers.

But that never happened. The surgery put a strain on my mother's fragile body, and she quickly became ill. She died a year after that miscarriage, when I was thirteen. It was so strange, how my grief was. I would wander throughout the house for months, looking at the dusty harp in the parlor, waiting for her to come to me and smile, and ask what I wanted for dinner. My grades in school plummeted.

You might notice that not all the information in this piece was in Alura, if you've read the book. But at the very least, I now have more background to how she feels about her place as an only child, as well as more backstory about how her mother died. This could also affect her in subconscious ways, such as her feeling lonely without siblings, or really wanting a husband so she can have kids. And who knows? When she becomes a mother to her own child, Adora, she may look back on her mother's difficulty having children in a different way, and I'll include that backstory when it becomes relevant.

Deciding what backstory to include in the book is important. There's no way you can know all of the above and still include everything in your story. And God knows you want to avoid the info-dump. We don't want to know about Lydia's miscarriages if they aren't immediately relevant to plot and character development (which is one of the two main reasons I didn't include that in Alura). So in the next chapter, I'll discuss how you can decide what's important, and how to weave the information naturally into the story.