Writer Shelves » back-story http://writershelves.com Reading, writing, publishing, and my journey to become a NYT Best Seller Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:54:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Creating Your Character’s Origin Story http://writershelves.com/writing/creating-your-characters-origin-story http://writershelves.com/writing/creating-your-characters-origin-story#comments Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:23:49 +0000 heidi2524 http://writershelves.com/?p=529 As an author, you have to know everything about your characters; their desires, goals, ambitions, secrets, strengths and weaknesses. You have to know their history. What happened to them before they showed up on page 1?

In comics, the back-story that makes a person a superhero or an arch villain is called their origin story. Even if your character doesn’t fly or wasn’t bit by a radioactive spider, something happened that made them the protagonist of your story. There is a reason they are the epicenter of all these events instead of someone else.

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And you need to know what that reason is.

Your character may or may not be aware of their origin. They may actively put themselves in the catalyzing moment because of their personality, or a past tragedy. Their reason for acting maybe be a delusion they use to hide the truth from themselves and others.

Whatever it is, define your character’s origin story. It is the starting point from which they will grow, the reason they act the way they do, and why they, and no one else, can save the day.

Professor Henry Jones: We named the *dog* Indiana.
- Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade

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