I love talking about character backstory ideas!
Why are backstories for characters important in fiction and scripts? Because your character’s background helps you understand who they are and how they’re going to behave and make decisions in different circumstances. In some cases, you might know how you want a character to act in a given situation, but you’re not sure why. That’s where this post, a character backstory generator, can be helpful.
These are also great to use as writing prompts…and I’ve had a couple of requests to do this post for DND backstory ideas!
In a novel, we very likely won’t learn about a character’s backstory right away. We may get just a hint of it. The character may get an email or a letter from someone and refuse to read it, or they may tell someone they’re never going back to Boston. When we finally do find out why, it can be really satisfying.
You may be looking for a backstory that’s a trauma narrative, or for a different kind of background, so I’m going to divide this list into those two parts.
Tragic Backstories for Characters
1. They were imprisoned or exiled for a crime they didn’t commit.
2. Their childhood home, village, or country was destroyed by war.
3. They were physically or sexually abused.
4. They witnessed someone being physically or sexually abused.
5. They witnessed a loved one’s death.
6. They discovered a dead body.
7. They were directed to commit crimes when they were too young to know better and/or to resist.
8. They were abandoned by a parent or a trusted adult.
9. They were abducted and forced into a terrible existence.
10. They accidentally killed someone.
11. Their error or critical decision led to disaster.
12. They were forced to choose which person to save.
13. They were brainwashed and manipulated by a cult leader.
14. One or both of their parents died when they were young.
15. The love of their life died young.
16. Their child died.
Other Character Backstory Ideas
Some of these are painful, but they’re not necessarily as tragic as the ones above. Or maybe they are, depending on how serious the situation was. You be the judge!
17. They had several younger siblings and helped raise them.
18. When they were a child, they had few opportunities to interact with other children.
19. They were one of a set of triplets.
20. They were briefly famous in the entertainment world; maybe they were a child actor, for example, or the bassist in a one-hit wonder rock band.
21. They were raised in an extremely religious household.
22. They lived for several years in another country, or several other countries.
23. They had a serious disease or physical health issue and spent time in hospitals.
24. They had a serious mental health issue and spent time in hospitals.
25. They were mocked and ostracized as a child for being different.
26. They experienced a spectacular loss or failure in their career.
27. They survived an airplane crash, a train wreck, or a natural disaster.
28. They had an addiction to alcohol, drugs, or gambling.
29. They grew up in a wealthy or famous family.
30. Their parent or sibling is a criminal, either in prison or at large.
31. They grew up in poverty.
32. They served in the military in active combat.
33. They earned a PhD in an arcane subject.
34. They never finished high school.
35. They had an encounter, or several encounters, with the supernatural and/or with alien life.
What Are the Backstories for Characters In Your Story?
Feel free to share below…and feel free to link your story or your book for sale! Sometimes hearing about a character’s past can really motivate us to learn more about their future. Please share any other thoughts as well!
For more plot ideas and prompts, be sure to check out my book 5,000 Writing Prompts!
Thanks so much for reading, and have a great week, everyone!
What a useful list! Thank you so much!
Aww thank you Naomi! I appreciate you!
How to insert backstory and avoid an info dump?
Dave. I AM SO GLAD YOU ASKED. Because I’ve been meaning to do a post on this! Everyone says “weave in the backstory,” leaving writers to think, “Okay, but…how?” Thank you for the reminder. Coming right up, I promise.
Wonderful examples. I love that you don’t shy away from the tough ones, too.
denise
Haha, I decided to do the rough ones first, though, so it wouldn’t all be too dour! Thanks for reading 🙂
Pretty much all of my main and side characters have been generous about sharing flashbacks to their distant pasts.
All except for my lead villain. He’s kept his backstory under very tight lock and key. He doesn’t think about his parents or his childhood or even his young adulthood. And I couldn’t figure out why.
Then, the other day, I was working on a scene that didn’t even have my lead villain in it. The word ‘abandoned’ popped into my head for some reason and I knew that was his secret. His parents either intentionally abandoned him or they both died, leaving him completely alone.
It’s taken me YEARS to crack his secret backstory. I’m very much looking forward to finally revealing it in-story.
Oh, my gosh! It’s so amazing when you finally figure out something like that. I think that’s such a great secret backstory for a villain, too.
Mr. Donovan just finished reading KNIGHT AT THE MUSEUM and asked, “Okay, what’s the museum curator’s deal?” And I was like, “…I’m not quite sure?” I need to figure it out!
Thank you!
It was amazing! I felt like that one word, “abandoned”, was the key that I’d been missing all along. And that backstory explains a lot about who he is as an adult.
Thanks Bryn. When I get an idea for a new novel, the first thing I do is a detailed character sketch of the MCs – including their backstories. In my WIP, I got carried away with my MMC, and wrote almost a complete biography!
You asked for examples: In brief Damon is the son of rich parents, who gave him everything material, but starved him of affection and took no interest in his achievements. He appears to be a rich playboy; but beneath the surface he is driven to succeed in business.
My FMC is close to her parents, who brought her up with strict moral beliefs, which makes her prudish and critical of others. She has been betrayed by the man in her life, which makes he distrust all men.
Some people say it’s evil of me to do, but I give almost all of my characters a very traumatic backstory and throughout the stories they just go through a lot more trauma.
I will admit it does sound evil, but when you really think about it, trauma makes great heroes, look at Batman for example, he lost his parents when he was a kid and that’s a very traumatic thing for a child to go through, but he grew up to be Batman.
This list really hits a lot of things with backstories and helps with writing different backstories for my characters instead of just using the same type of tragedy. The list is great!
i once seen a movie where an undead creep got his eyeball eaten by his abucive father and was forced to kill his girlfriend by russians in ww2 and killed his father by feeding him magic beans that would split him in half by magic beanstalk. how terrifying do you think that is?