Creating Backstory | Planning a novel from SCRATCH 

#novelwriting #characterdevelopment #writinganovel
I am currently on a mission, me a ‘pantser’ to give structured planning a thorough go. The plan - to plan a novel, in full, in depth, on the spot, and using only structured frameworks.
To recap, we first used the save the cat beat sheet to outline our tale. A wannabe magician has his dreams crushed on opening night when the theatre enters foreclosure. Not one to give up easily however he chooses to take matters into his own hands, seeking audience with the king of the realm to put forward a case for financing the theatre. Things do not go to plan however, when he is arrested for treason.
Next we used the enneagram personality test to explore our main characters deepest fears and motivations and whilst this was a helpful exercise in expanding my ideas around these characters, it left something to be desired in the final character sketch. I feel I still have some way to go in getting a feel for these characters, who they are and the chooses they will make.
And so today we are zooming in on backstory, starting with our failed assassin, the character I’m feeling the least confident in. Let’s see if our question based framework today can help us bring this character to life!
You can read PS Hoffman’s article on character backstory and download his template here: pshoffman.com/character-creat...