Hello an welcome back.

Today’s post is from Chapter 2 of the What If? book by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter. The gist of the exercise is to know what happened in the characters’ lives before the story takes place. And how it affects their lives in the story you’re writing.

For No Remorse No Regret, my main character, Melissa, was the surviving victim of a serial killer. Raped and left for dead, inadvertently rescued by a member of the Russian Mafia who takes her as his own trains her in how to kill. This sets her up to be a vigilante.

The serial killer in the story, Colton Harris, was a bullied as a child. This set him up to become what he was in the story.

For my story Burned, the main character Ryan, is an undercover cop, who is estranged from his wife and son because of his focus on the job to the detriment of his family. This comes up in the interaction with the girl he rescues from a biker gang.

For your own stories, come up with ways on what events happened in your characters’ lives that brought them to this point. How do you incorporate it into the story so it doesn’t sound like an info dump.

Anyway, I hope this helps you with your own writing. Make it a great day.