#WordWeavers 3 For which characters do you come up with a backstory?
If I look for too long at a place where a character has some dialogue or action, I start knowing things about them. I try to avoid doing that for the ones I have plans for in future volumes (especially fatal plans) because it can make things complicated. Knowing backstories that don't make it to the page in the current volume may not be a problem.
Sometimes I need to find a replacement spear-carrier, other times they merge.
#WordWeavers 3 backstories
When I say characters merge: there have been a few times when things clicked into place, so I realized that if a character who, say, handed over a message in chapter 3 was the same person who in chapter 10 performed some minor action and had a line or two, it revealed something interesting about the world without needing info dumps.
I'm being vague partly to avoid spoilers and partly because I remember the joy of those moments, but not necessarily who they involved.
I had a moment like this recently. One of my supervillain characters had no more backstory than "she's in it for the money".
Then, as I was writing a novel where she's the antagonist, I realised what she wanted all that money for...
Elyse M Grasso
Branwen OShea (she/her)
D. G. Marshall