Protagonist's Back Story

YeshuasHeart

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Excuse me, but do you guys think my protagonist has a back story or not? If she doesn't, how do I rewrite it?

Here it is: During her first eight years, Hanna didn't have any playmates due to her mother breaking social norms of her own free will. Her mother gave Hanna snacks, talks to Hanna informally and allows her to compete before she began Elementary school, which Pedionians looked down on and viewed Hanna's family as undisciplined. Because of this, Hanna lacks social skills and relies om family and her teddy bear for it. She's also shy which lead her to be bullied in Elementary school and Lower Secondary. She had a difficult time fitting in and even have real friends.
 

APieceOfRock

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Yea that's a backstory. I can't say about the quality of it but it's definitely one of the backstories of all times.

On a less serious note, this is not a protagonist's backstory. The mother didn't die, her childhood friend didn't betray her, she didn't escape from a secret laboratory that creates supersoldiers. Hanna's backstory is more of like the backstory of a female lead in a KR novel that loses all her personalities when she's with the male lead.
 

Forestbear

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Hope you add more to it. Feels like a heroine's backstory or a side characters. Not a protagonist. Gotta make her rambunctious or something.
 

YeshuasHeart

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Yea that's a backstory. I can't say about the quality of it but it's definitely one of the backstories of all times.

On a less serious note, this is not a protagonist's backstory. The mother didn't die, her childhood friend didn't betray her, she didn't escape from a secret laboratory that creates supersoldiers. Hanna's backstory is more of like the backstory of a female lead in a KR novel that loses all her personalities when she's with the male lead.
Okay, well can I make her backstory about her surviving the war, become an orphan, be raised by her crappy aunt and uncle from her dad's side, and have her friends betray her in Elementary school and Lower Secondary which makes ger become paranoid about war and making new friends then?
Hope you add more to it. Feels like a heroine's backstory or a side characters. Not a protagonist. Gotta make her rambunctious or something.
Okay, well can I make her backstory about her surviving the war, become an orphan, be raised by her crappy aunt and uncle from dad's side, and have her friends betray her in Elementary school and Lower Secondary which makes ger become paranoid about war and making new friends then?
 
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APieceOfRock

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Okay, well can I make her backstory about her surviving the war, become an orphan, be raised by her crappy aunt and uncle from her dad's side, and have her friends betray her in Elementary school and Lower Secondary which makes ger become paranoid about war and making new friends then?

Okay, well can I make her backstory about her surviving the war, become an orphan, be raised by her crappy aunt and uncle from dad's side, and have her friends betray her in Elementary school and Lower Secondary which makes ger become paranoid about war and making new friends then?
And also have her mother actually be the Demon lord that was isekai'd to this world and she has to protect herself from the Hero that came to this world to hunt her down.
 

Domoviye

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It's a backstory. To make her an active protagonist, she's going to have to be thrown in the deep end and made to swim. But it gives her flaws, things to overcome, potential for some unique skills (what has her mom taught her, what has she learned in her free time away from most people). So just make sure she isn't too passive, and she's good to go.
 

YeshuasHeart

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And also have her mother actually be the Demon lord that was isekai'd to this world and she has to protect herself from the Hero that came to this world to hunt her down.
But I want to make a superhero story.
It's a backstory. To make her an active protagonist, she's going to have to be thrown in the deep end and made to swim. But it gives her flaws, things to overcome, potential for some unique skills (what has her mom taught her, what has she learned in her free time away from most people). So just make sure she isn't too passive, and she's good to go.
Like making her survive the war, her crappy aunt and uncle from her dad's side, her friends' betrayal in Elementary and Lower Secondary which makes her paranoid about a warlike environment and making new friends?
 
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TheEldritchGod

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Here it is: During her first eight years, Hanna didn't have any playmates due to her mother breaking social norms of her own free will.
First 8 years of what? life? Mom broke social norms of her own free will? Why? Most people are motivated by anger, fear, spite, desire. To make your life more difficult for yourself and your child, you would need a reason. Either she felt it was in her kid's best interest, or she hated her child.

Her mother gave Hanna snacks
What mother doesn't feed their child?

talks to Hanna informally
Why would you talk formally to your child?

and allows her to compete before she began Elementary school
This is odd? What sort of society does NOT encourage competition?

which Pedionians
Uhhh... Okay. Gonna be that asshole. A little to close to pedophile. Not gonna market well.

looked down on and viewed Hanna's family as undisciplined.
Competing requires training. Training requires discipline. HUH?

Because of this, Hanna lacks social skills and relies on family and her teddy bear for it.
Wow. Lacking social skills. Could you be a bit more vague? Is she gonna carry around a teddy bear? Will it talk to her? is this like Linus?

She's also shy which lead her to be bullied in Elementary school and Lower Secondary. She had a difficult time fitting in and even have real friends
Ugh. Everyone gets bullied. Life is about a series of preditors preying on each other in a never ending fractal loop. This is a vague, yet unspecific character flaw. If you were making a D&D character, this would be what I would expect to justify making Charisma the dump stat. This background needs to carry the character's foundational personality

LOVE is not the strongest emotion. Love is what inspires the other emotions.

Anger at those who threaten your love.
Fear at losing what you love.
Spite to gain revenge on those who hurt what you love.
Desire to crave that which you love.

These are your four core emotions. You don't need them in a backstory if the backstory isn't important, but you sound like you are trying to make it important. if so, Pick at least one of these and define it as part of your character.

MC's wife and Daughter are dead but the gods promised there was a way to get them back. The desire to have them in his life defines his motivation.

MC had a nice normal life but finds himself Isekai'd into someone else's life and feels bad about it. He discovers the body he once occupied was an asshole who tortured his friends and family. He seeks to spite the former occupant by giving his new family and friends a happy life.

MC winds up in another world where he gets superpowers. He has hangups about his dead beat dad failing to be there for his mom and cuts himself from everyone to become a ruthless success. Deep down inside he always wanted to be loved, so he develops a secondary personality and BODY of his idealized self that is a bundle of all his childhood insecurities. The primary personality is unfocused Rage at how unfair life is. His alternate body is fear of being alone combined with an unbridled desire to be loved.

MO-TI-VA-TION.

WHAT IS IT? WHY DO I CARE?

Your first sentence in your book is the hook. It then makes me want to read the first paragraph. Your first paragraph gives me a question I want answered and the only answer is found in your book. Your Background is a piece of the puzzle to answer that question.

You can write "And So..." or "And Then"

And then means shit happens because it happens.

And So means it is a logical result of something that happened before.

You do not need to give a background at the beginning, but if you are going to include it, you need to make sure it slots in nicely into AND SO. Your background should be, if someone was to explain your book in chronological order, the START of the chain of AND SO.

You can have AND THEN, but every AND THEN is the start of a new chain of AND SO.
 

K5Rakitan

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Hanna and her mother sound very close. Children often get a comfort object such as a teddy bear when their parents don't comfort them enough. In Western cultures that encourage independence from an early age, around 60% of children will get a comfort object. In Eastern cultures where mothers hold their babies throughout most of the day and sleep in the same bed, around 25% of children will get a comfort object.

My son is 21 months old now, and he's shown affection for his animal toys by hugging and kissing them, but he hasn't formed an attachment to any one of them in particular because I am his primary source of comfort. He has every opportunity to choose a comfort object and carry it with him wherever he goes, but he always has me or another trusted adult nearby. We've never sent him to daycare due to the pandemic, but he spends 2.5 hours with Grandma and Grandpa on most days, and we're planning to get him more involved with neighbor kids now that he's got all his shots.

If she gets a comfort object after she starts elementary school, I'd think it would be something more discreet that she can keep in her pocket (or purse if female clothes don't have pockets in your world) and touch as needed.

I recommend taking a human development course if you want to get better at writing backstories. If you don't have access to university courses, I recommend starting with this book:


You may also find this helpful:

And this:

If Hanna's mother leaves her completely alone for multiple hours a day, the comfort object would make sense, but the way you mentioned "Her mother gave Hanna snacks, talks to Hanna informally and allows her to compete . . ." that sounds like a mother who is always present for her child, perhaps a permissive parent but certainly not a neglectful one. It sounds like the rest of the society they live in is more on the authoritarian side of the spectrum.

Also, compete in what?
 
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