Back-story

In narratology, a back-story (also back story or backstory) is the history behind the situation extant at the start of the main story. This literary device is often employed to lend the main story depth or verisimilitude. A back-story may include the history of characters, objects, countries, or other elements of the main story. Back-stories are usually revealed, sketchily or in full, chronologically or otherwise, as the main narrative unfolds. However, a story creator may also create portions of a back-story or even an entire back-story that is solely for his or her own use in writing the main story and is never revealed in the main story. In role-playing games, a character’s back-story is usually called his or her background.

The dramatic revelation of secrets from the backstory is a useful term for forming the story, recommended as far back as Aristotle's Poetics.

Contents 1 Shared back-stories 2 Sustainability back-stories 3 Notes and references 4 See also

Shared back-stories

In a shared universe more than one author may share the same back-story. The later creation of a back-story that conflicts in some way with a previously written main story may require the adjustment device known as retroactive continuity.

Since the advent of the internet and of blogs, this journalistic backstory has become much more visible and interesting to the general public. Blogs often focus on the backstory both before and after the standard news story is covered in the media. This is beginning to change the lines between story and backstory and alter the definitions of journalism.

The New York Times has started a daily podcast called "Backstory" in which its editors and senior staff interview its reporters about stories they are working on. The project seems to be designed to help overcome public distrust of the Times and other media by people who assume the backstory is concealed by an elite unconcerned, for reasons of political bias or simple incompetence, about the truth of its official reporting.

CNN^[1] now uses its “BackStory” feature to provide “a quick way to catch up on how a story has developed over time.”

Sustainability back-stories

In recent years, sustainability advocates have begun to refer to the "back-story" of goods: that is, the impacts on the planet and people created by producing and delivering those goods [1]. Without knowing the full back-story of the things we use, they argue, we can't accurately judge whether or not the impacts we are indirectly generating by purchasing them are good or bad. Therefore, many bright green environmentalists believe that greater corporate and governmental transparency is a critical step towards sustainability, so that consumers can make more informed choices, and public opinion can be brought to bear on unethical practices [2].

Notes and references

See also

• Flashback
• Racconto
• Characterization
• Origin story
• Discovery (fiction)

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