That character history trick I found on a Reddit thread actually saved my whole story

I kept getting stuck writing my fantasy novel because my main character's backstory was a mess (like a tangled ball of yarn). Then I tried this thing where you write a fake Wikipedia article for them including dates and places like "born in Oakhaven, 1985." It forced me to pick 3 specific events that shaped them, not 12 random ones. Has anyone else used a non-narrative format to break through a block?

2 comments

2 Comments

ryang653d ago

I did something similar with a timeline app for my sci-fi story, mapping out key dates like "joined the resistance in 2154" and it forced me to cut out all the filler backstory. That gave me a clear chain of cause and effect for my character's motivations instead of a bunch of random traits. Helps a ton when you can actually see the sequence laid out like that.

elizabeth4383d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah @ryang65 you hit on something I figured out the hard way too. The timeline thing forces you to ask "why does this character even care about this event?" instead of just throwing random cool moments together. I used a corkboard with index cards for my fantasy novel, pinning down things like "finds the cursed sword" and "betrays the guild" in order, and it made me realize half my character's backstory was just decoration. Once you see the dates or sequence, you spot the holes where you're skipping over actual cause and effect. It's like your brain can't cheat anymore when it's all laid out in front of you. Have you found yourself cutting characters or plotlines once you mapped them out like that?