Well, I started this blog 7 years ago with great intentions, and had a great almost 7 months posting and then I started grad school and anything other than grad school sorta fell by the wayside.
In the years between then and now, I’ve thought about picking up where I left off, but haven’t really found the motivation at the right time of the year.
So I’m sort letting the daily writing prompt/daily writing tip thing go after 7 years (it’s time 😂). While I stopped posting, I did continue writing (sporadically) and now that I am done with grad school I am actually taking a creative writing class for the first time ever and I am so excited!!!
It’s only just started, but one thing that my prof said that I’ve been ruminating over and want to share with you all is that a lot of people use backstory solely to justify a character’s actions. And if used like that, then it’s really easy to fall into common tropes and make your character feel very two dimensional. Instead, backstory should give your character depth. It can (and likely will) explain some of the character’s attributes/decisions/etc, but it should also add to the character in some way.
Idk I hope I’m explaining that right and in a way that makes sense.
For me, the example that comes to mind is from the show Miraculous Ladybug (I’m not caught up yet with what’s been released on Disney+ so PLEASE NO SPOILERS), where we have two characters, one of whom is a villain and one of whom is a superhero. Character one is a rich fashion designer with a wife who mysteriously disappeared and since then has rarely left his house and still grieves her. Character two grew up isolated, lost his mother as a child and his father is very distant, he was essentially raised by his father’s personal assistant. He was homeschooled, almost completely cut off from the outside world unless it was convenient for his father to parade him around.
Character one seems like he’s set up to be a Batman-like superhero, while character two is set up to be the villain with a chip on his shoulder.
But in reality, character one is the villain terrorizing Paris by preying on people’s negative emotions, while character two is an absolute cinnamon roll of a human who wholeheartedly accepts his role as second in command of a superhero duo, then a superhero team, led by a female superhero. He’s not even an antihero, he just absolutely loves Ladybug and is absolutely willing to accept that she is in charge from the get go. It does also explain some of his attributes/actions (why he loves being a superhero so much bc he finally gets the freedom he never got before; his worst nightmare is being locked up) but it *explains and adds*.
Like. They could’ve used his tragic Disney Princess background to justify making him an asshole. But they gave him the backstory while also making him the sweetest, kindest, ladybug simp possible.
There’s so many things this show gets right (this is just one of them) and even tho it’s a kids show I recommend everyone watch it (at least the earlier seasons… jury’s still out on what Disney has decided to do with it since they acquired it lol)
Anyway. Am hoping to share any other tidbits that I learn along the way, but based on that 7 year gap I am not making any promises 😂










