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Back Story

 

Disciplines > StorytellingStory Devices > Back Story

Description | Example | Discussion | See also

 

Description

What is often called the 'back story' is, to use a fuller name, a background story. It is a description of the lives of the people in the story outside of that told in the main tale.

It may include detail of their history and what brought them to the position where they enter the story. It may also give more contextual information about where they live, what they do, and other useful detail.

The back story can also include any other information that helps answer the question 'why?' about the main story. It gives reason to why things are as they are and why things happen as they do.

Yet the reader, listener or view of the story never knows this detail.

Example

The back story to an alternative version of Little Red Riding Hood might tell of the story of a spoilt child, a tiresome grandmother, a wimpy wolf and a psychotic woodcutter...

Discussion

Authors write back stories to help them stitch together a story that makes sense. Without the back story, the main tale may turn into a number of disconnected episodes and have logical errors, for example where a good character does something bad for no reason.

Back stories are also used in dramatic presentations to help the actors, director and other staff get a deeper sense of the characters and their environment and hence produce a more coherent, vital performance.

See also

 

 

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Site Menu

| Home | Top | Quick Links | Settings |

Main sections: | Disciplines | Techniques | Principles | Explanations | Theories |

Other sections: | Blog! | Quotes | Guest articles | Analysis | Books | Help |

More pages: | Contact | Caveat | About | Students | Webmasters | Awards | Guestbook | Feedback | Sitemap | Changes |

Settings: | Computer layout | Mobile layout | Small font | Medium font | Large font | Translate |

 

 

Please help and share:

 

Quick links

Disciplines

* Argument
* Brand management
* Change Management
* Coaching
* Communication
* Counseling
* Game Design
* Human Resources
* Job-finding
* Leadership
* Marketing
* Politics
* Propaganda
* Rhetoric
* Negotiation
* Psychoanalysis
* Sales
* Sociology
* Storytelling
* Teaching
* Warfare
* Workplace design

Techniques

* Assertiveness
* Body language
* Change techniques
* Closing techniques
* Conversation
* Confidence tricks
* Conversion
* Creative techniques
* General techniques
* Happiness
* Hypnotism
* Interrogation
* Language
* Listening
* Negotiation tactics
* Objection handling
* Propaganda
* Problem-solving
* Public speaking
* Questioning
* Using repetition
* Resisting persuasion
* Self-development
* Sequential requests
* Storytelling
* Stress Management
* Tipping
* Using humor
* Willpower

Principles

+ Principles

Explanations

* Behaviors
* Beliefs
* Brain stuff
* Conditioning
* Coping Mechanisms
* Critical Theory
* Culture
* Decisions
* Emotions
* Evolution
* Gender
* Games
* Groups
* Habit
* Identity
* Learning
* Meaning
* Memory
* Motivation
* Models
* Needs
* Personality
* Power
* Preferences
* Research
* Relationships
* SIFT Model
* Social Research
* Stress
* Trust
* Values

Theories

* Alphabetic list
* Theory types

And

About
Guest Articles
Blog!
Books
Changes
Contact
Guestbook
Quotes
Students
Webmasters

 

| Home | Top | Menu | Quick Links |

© Changing Works 2002-
Massive Content — Maximum Speed