Backstory is the history that precedes the narrative’s present — what happened before the story begins. A character’s childhood, a war that shaped the world, a relationship that ended before page one — all are backstory. The writer needs to know it; the reader needs only as much of it as the present story requires.
The challenge of backstory is delivery. The writer who has invented a rich history is tempted to share it all, but backstory that arrives before the reader cares about the present situation is dead weight. The most effective approach is to reveal backstory in fragments, when the present action makes it relevant — a detail of childhood surfacing during a crisis, a past betrayal mentioned when trust is at stake.
In craft terms, backstory is a species of exposition — information the reader needs to understand the present. The same rules apply: deliver it late rather than early, in small doses rather than blocks, through action and dialogue rather than narration when possible.
Flashback is one tool for delivering backstory, but it’s not the only one — or always the best one. A character’s behavior in the present can imply backstory without showing it. A flinch, a refusal, a particular skill — each tells the reader that something happened before, without requiring a scene set in the past. The best backstory is felt in the present tense of the story.
Related terms
- exposition — backstory is a type of exposition
- flashback — a technique for dramatizing backstory
- character — backstory shapes who characters are in the present
- subtext — backstory often operates as subtext, implied rather than stated