Stephen D. Lalonde

As I am writing, I am finding that developing backstory for my main characters is critically important, and that leads me to realize something about life. The more we know about someone’s ‘backstory’, the more dimensional they become. Close friends usually know each other’s backstory. I believe the more you know about someone’s life, the more you understand them and that is what leads to strong relationships. So it is with fictional characters. I have spent much time developing the backstories of my characters. It informs the motivation of their behavior and beliefs. Not all of that surfaces in the storyline, but it can when needed. Even my secondary characters, such as the sailors on the ships, have detailed elements of their past, and I have found that makes the whole story more relatable. Some of them stutter, or are scarred, or have been abandoned. There are reasons for those things and that makes them more real and explains why they are the way they are.