The Back Stories
This is the writer’s attempt to explain some of the character’s horrible personality, or to justify a character’s cruel, seemingly unforgivable actions. I mean, not all traumatized people turn out to be seriously damaged. Some are genuinely sweeter than anyone would think them to be. Some people remain optimists despite every horrible thing thrown at them.
And then there are some people that were born in a kingdom of sunshine and daisies yet act like the spawn of Satan. You know who I’m talking about. Nowadays we see them in the form of toddlers toting iPhones. In our days it was the annoying kids in junior high who bought every iPod the second it came out and wore those annoying Hollister t-shirts. To tell you the truth, I never liked those kids. At the young age of thirteen, I semi-realized (probably not a word) that it’s ridiculous for a normal person to spend forty dollars on a shirt. My young development of frugality is probably the reason I never got invited to parties, but whatever. I totally went off topic there didn’t I? Okay, back to the stuck up kids who still torture the rest of humanity.
I agree that these people exist, but they are mean just because they are mean. They are most likely not being hit by their parents or boyfriends. They are most likely just experiencing something I like to call ‘permanent PMS’. Notice here that I am using the word ‘mostly’. I really am not asking for outraged commenters saying that I’m being offensive.
Back to the main topic, the whole back story. I hate back stories that are used to try to bring depth to a pathetic excuse for a plot. I say that liberally because I’m not referring to a single story, I’m referring to many of them, and there are too many of them. My definition of a pathetic story is basically a plot that you can guess from beginning to end with shallow characters and an overdose of hormones. I mean, even when they make a character shy it sounds so insincere. Imagine Kanye West pretending to be humble, or Tim Gunn (or is it Gun? I’m referring to the white-haired fashion guy on Project Runway if I got his name wrong) wearing overalls. Never gonna happen, but you see what I mean.
The whole back story attempts are mostly ineffective, and it only makes me hate the writer even more. Like all those falling in love with a bully kind of novels I’m covering in the next chapter.
The author has this view that if she paints us a crude picture of a little boy going through the foster system as a child, it completely explains and justifies him being a gangster as an adult. It doesn’t. There are people that rise from the ashes of their dismal beginnings, and those are the people that are to be glorified. Not the individuals that succumb to darker paths.
The bad thing is that these pictures are so badly drawn that they have no effect, and possibly have the opposite of the desired effect. For me to feel something for a character, it has to be amazingly written. I cry reading sad books when they’re good. I cringe when I read the same kind of attempts on Wattpad. I’d just to say, not all of them are like that. A few I read a couple of years back were actually amazing.
I want to say, sorry if I offended anyone. Again. Seriously, I’m not looking for commenter drama here. Also, if anyone has cases of the whole backstory phenomenon written well, I’d like to hear about them in the comments. When the backstory is written properly, you have to admit that it’s a pretty great way to build a bond between reader and character.
