Most fanfictions have them. They are always lurking around some where in each and every story on this site. It's the necassary evil and eveyone is guilty.

But what do you really think about them? How should they best be placed inside the story? And most importantly can our stories live without them?

948965 I defiantly love them, well most of the time.

948965 Our stories have to potential to but in my case they can't really play out that way.

I cheated. I had to include a lot of backstory, because it was a Celestia has a dark secret fic (with a twist, but still), and the secret was 40,000 years old.

I showed the effects that the secret has on others, to try to draw the reader in -- I don't know how well I succeeded or not -- and several chapters in I had a flashback that revealed the whole thing.

Guess it all depends. Many popular stories (real books) have backstory in them, at least in the first book. Some books that use backstory open with them and then skip ahead (Harry Potter), while other books (Bloody Jack) take the concept of backstory and make it into the main story itself (one continuous timeline). Some books (The Hobbit) give you some general backstory to set the stage and then step back and let things happen from there. Heck, you can argue that Lord of the Rings in general wouldn't exist if Tolkien wasn't allowed to use backstory to explain why the One Ring needed to be destroyed.

I'm guilty of using Backstory in my most popular story, for both main characters. In the case of that story, each backstory had the narrative purpose of helping each pony understand the other a little bit better.

In general fics, backstory is fine as long as it serves to help the story along in the best way possible. That's my opinion on the matter.

948965

It depends. Back story is generally unimportant for fan fictions, since the actual material is the back story. So really, almost no story of length could survive a lack of context. That's what I think it is, myself: context. As a form of context, they should only be seen when they become relevant, but still have a visible effect on the characters present.

948965

I don't see why it's a "necessary evil" at all. Backstory fleshes out the fictional world and helps make it feel real. A setting with no history is just an excuse to have a plot. Now, exposition of that backstory can be poorly done, but backstory itself is vital.

949010 Well, I created this post based on what a proofreader said about the back story I wrote for later in my current story.

The context being that the teller was trying to satisfy the curiosity of the listener without revealing the whole thing, but ocasionally gets interupted (Pinkie is no where to be found)

It depends on the type of story IMO. If backstory is going to be used a lot, then it has to be hinted at a few times at least, I hate it when people just drop a load of story-changing backstory all in one go, as if they just came up with the idea right in the middle of the chapter.

949067

This is an important thing to keep in mind.

Backstory is fine when it fleshes out aspects of the characters that are already somewhat apparent, but haven't been fully explored. Backstory is bad when the events in the past suddenly rise out of nowhere and wreck havoc on the present storyline. Unless, of course, the havoc is the storyline.

Bit of a stupid example, but something helpful just popped into my head. Anyone who's watched the Poke'mon anime knows about Meowth. Meowth's backstory got its own episode. From a storytelling standpoint though, it doesn't change who Meowth currently is, as a character. It just helps us understand who he is a little bit better.

Ironically, the episode is filler.

I sometimes uses a technique where i starts in the action, and then uses back stories to tell what happened before.
It is mostly tiny hints that together forms a coplex image.
Like a footnote in a book here, a comment there, a story here... it acumulates, and forms a backstory. and if i wants to stress something i let the charracters diretly tell it or in some way remember it (trail of though, flashback, dream etc).

Personally i thinks a well done story within a story adds another level of depth to a story. it forms a world arroun it.

A back-story is fine if you don't do an info-dump, as I see it. If you've dropped hints along the way, it makes sense to finish it, then dismiss it ... if you can.
Sometimes the back-story gets dragged out and openly discussed when it has a serious effect, such as someone asking seriously or even angrily why the character did what they did, or act the way they do.
Either way, it's judicious use of a back-story that makes a story. Exposition doesn't always break it, but it's definitely not a good idea.

If you can provide the context for back-story, then why not? Readers are curious, especially if you do a time-leap in between your stories, and if it fits in your story contextually then that's awesome. It will give the character's actions more meaning and depth.. I advocate putting in back-story for many stories (particularly adventure).

I think in the end backstories are the kind of thing which fanfiction is created for. We get to flesh out characters of our choosing and explain why we think they are who they were on the show.

Are you kidding? Backstories MAKE the story. It's a layer of detail that helps create the world you're trying so desperately to immerse your readers in.

The Da Vinci Code provides a lot of flashbacks for backstory. The ones about Langdon's past are pretty unimportant and while the ideas he gets as a result of them help him and Sophie along their investigation, there did not need to be an entire flashback for him to have those memories and figure out the meanings of the clues they were left. They were filler and I ended up skipping them to save time, since I was lazy and had to read 180+ pages in two days for a homework assignment. However, it's not as if these were boring to read, and I would have read them if I weren't pressed for time.
Then there were the flashbacks into Silas, Sophie, and Aringarosa's pasts, which were important to describing how their pasts affected the way the events in the story played out and were going to play out. They also delved into the characters themselves and why they are the way they are during the events in the story.
I would say that backstories are very important for longer stories with character development. Also, only use flashbacks to tell backstory when it is actually important to tell the backstory that way. Even if it is interesting, a useless bit of information can be easily skimmed over, and that may not look good for your story if it is not already a smash hit in their mind.

can some one help me with my fanfic and i agree backstories do help a story

Is hiding important parts of backstory until they become relevant to the story considered bad/annoying or even worse, an ass-pull?

I have this one character who used to be a pretty important figure but when the story begins she is just a normal everyday miniature horse like everyone else and barely nothing about her could hint at it.

yea be annoying but ik my fanfic i have a good backstory just need someone help read it before i post anything to get feedback and help with char devlopment of others

949651 could u help me on my fanfic

949693
I'm flattered that you think I could do a good job.
What is it about?

949651

It's not necessarily a bad thing, no. Depends on how it's used.

For instance, think about the Horcruxes in Harry Potter. Specifically, about how by the time of the seventh book, one of them has already been destroyed and neither Harry nor the reader knew about it until the plot demanded they know it.

Now, that's not to say that it's an ideal solution. I'm just saying it can be done, and it's been done to some degree in real-life books.

I usually think back stories are a necessary tool of any well structured plot. It is however a very hard and very mean tool to use.

my favorite is the character back story. Usually every important character has some sort of back story. The best characters have a back story that effects their actions and thought processes in some way. I personally write out all my traits of my characters and the reasons of those traits. This allows me to figure out a character's persona and place in a story while also hinting at things in their own backstory.

So for example, Applejack is touchy on the subject of death... why? because Her parents died and she hasn't quite gotten over it. Although this wouldn't be out right stated you can show this information in her actions. Like being confrontational and a bit rude at a funeral.