Wednesday links: Backstory

I love regularly reading tips and advice articles in certain subjects — particularly writing and publishing. I don’t always need the information right then, but I know that it’ll eventually come in handy. Or at least, I hope it will.

I know there are a lot of other people out there who feel the same way I do, but sometimes it can be difficult to find every useful advice article that’s out there. So I thought I’d bring you a few. Here are the tips and advice articles that jumped out at me the most over the past week.

1. The #1 Key to Relatable Characters: Backstory, from Helping Writers Become Authors: I love a good backstory. When I’m writing, or even reading, I tend to get frustrated if the backstory doesn’t come across in just the right way. This post (with a Marvel comparison, no less!) will be a great help in that. Excerpt: “Backstory is Ernest Hemingway’s 9/10ths of the iceberg under the water. It’s the delicious subtext. It’s what gives depth and breadth to a character—even (and here’s the magic part) when the backstory itself is barely touched upon in the main story.”