Your Character’s past Determines your Book’s Future
Experience is our molder, no matter how far you run or pretend things didn’t happen your past experience made the person reading this blog post. So, if that is true for you, your character is no exception just because they’re made of ink. They must be 3 dimensional, rounded and molded by all the experience they have encountered. And no, I’m not saying go and write the most detailed outline of a character bio, don’t do that, that is not what I’m saying. I’m saying you need to know key points about your character before your story starts, specifically the moment their world view shifted, and their internal conflict and misbelief were born.
Lisa Cron, in her book Story Genius, said: “The deeper you dive into your protagonist’s past, the clearer his future — aka your plot will become.” pg 71
Knowing the exact scene where your main character’s perspective on life changed is what you need to write and understand the effect of it on the main character. Then making your plot will become easier because as I’ve said before: cause and effect. Knowing that first effect will lead to causes and more effects to create your story.
Thank you so much for reading! So now go forth and write! I believe in you!
