Backstory Techniques

Show me an interesting character, and I immediately know the author has done her homework. Backstory will make or break a character.
So exactly what is backstory?
Backstory is the character’s past history; it’s what shapes them, and gives them personality. Without it, your character will be dull and uninteresting. It can also help you with flashbacks and internal thoughts.
I recently presented a workshop to a writer’s group, and needed to find a way to help those writers create a backstory for the character they were going to create that day. I wracked my brains for days; how could I explain it without making it sound too boring? Hmmmm.
Then I came up with what I thought was pretty creative…
Each of us has memories, whether they are good memories or bad ones is irrelevant. Thoughts of days past help to form our personalities.
Every time I smell lavender, whether that is in the form of the dried flowers, oils or lavender on the bush, it reminds me of the lavender bags my dear departed aunty Pat used to make. She had a huge bush growing near her front door, and we had to walk past it to get inside.
That was over thirty years ago, but those memories still linger as vividly as they did during that time.
I used those memories to describe Gary Bedford’s thoughts in “Saving Emma” –
“The gentle fragrance she wore drifted into his nostrils. It was familiar. Lavender? His mother had a lavender bush. Gary literally had to walk past it to get through her front door.
It was definitely lavender, he finally decided; the fragrance suited her–soft and gentle.”
Of course Lavender is not the only thing that will induce memories. I took along some bottles of essential oils. Cedarwood was one of them. I just love Cedarwood – it always gives me that feeling of being in a forest, listening to the whippoorwills and kookaburras. It’s a feeling of isolation, but also of peace. It brings back a lot of memories for me, as I spent a lot of my early years bushwalking.
Frankincense is another favourite, and another oil I took with me. This oil always gives me a sense of homeliness. Think about what that means to you, and what it could mean to your character.
It gives me a sense of belonging, of happy families, and of love. It may mean something entirely different to someone who has come from a bad background.
What does it mean to your character? How does/did their home life affect them as adults?
There are so many other items you can use to assist you in creating your character’s backstory: hats, trophies, photos, guitars, old wallet, pyjamas or other clothing from a deceased family member, favourite chair.