Backstory: Spidermunk vs. Koalaphant!
Has your protagonist always wanted to fly like an eagle, but has a hedgehog's body?
Has your irritable antagonist always had a tiger's appetite, but suffers from a vegetarian stomach?
Was your sidekick bullied because of a specific feature, say a set of particularly oversized ears?
Creating unique characters is an exercise in insight. One must dig into one's own perspective, unearthing traits and facts that an audience has never before seen in a character.
If taken as a simple list of details about life prior to the inciting incident, a character's history does nothing to jumpstart the conflict of a script. But narrowing in on the specific parts of a character's life, that essential information that informs the story a writer wishes to tell, will help convert backstory from marginally interesting exposition, to meaty character elements an audience can invest in.
Don't settle for the ordinary, dig into characters and find your Hedgeagles, Cowigers, Bunnowls and Chamelerusus!
Follow TWST at IG: thewritescripttutor
