The most convincing argument I can make against starting your spec with the backstory and then jumping forward in time is this:

Casablanca doesn’t open in Paris. 

Start in the now and set up your now problem. Use the backstory to escalate in your second act. It will elevate your game like crazy.

Once again…imma need the backstory here!

viewtokill:

your character should be morethan a tragic backstory. more than i lost my parents at a young age so now i rebel against the world. more than i have all these wicked skills without proper background or training. 

sass is great, and so is silence — but when aren’t they using their biting wit? when do they speak up? do they use their ass-kicking skills for good? for evil? have they lost people along the way — actually, it’s inevitable, so what happened after the funeral? did your character attend? did they seek revenge, or search for answers at the bottom of a bottle? 

don’t toss around tragedies if you’re not going to apply them to your characterization. alcoholics aren’t just loud and physically abusive; ptsd doesn’t mean you’ve boarded up the windows and refuse to leave your house. you won’t always continue to hate your parents after they’ve died. you will doubt your life decisions. being rich doesn’t make you sexy. being smart doesn’t make you socially awkward [ alternatively, it doesn’t make you the most attractive person in the room. ] even if you’re wicked smart, you’ll still get some things wrong. 

do your research. if you put your character through traumatic events, not everyone walks away unscathed. but being haunted by the ghosts of your past doesn’t make you attractive either. it’s a nitty gritty, dirty fucking business. you get mad, your world loses color, you feel alone, and sometimes you ask yourself why you’re the one who lived. 

treat your character like their own person. just because you wouldn’t say something to someone doesn’t mean they’ll keep their trap shut. it doesn’t mean they’ll want a big wedding or fast cars or apple pie made the way your mother taught you. maybe you’re pro-life and your character is pro-choice. maybe it’s vice versa. just because your character is a dick doesn’t mean it should be a reflection on yourself. but if they’re going to be a dick, and you want it to be believable, give them a reason to be a dick. a reason to hate the world, only slightly less than they hate the people living in it. maybe more. maybe it’s maybelline.

being smart and young and witty and attractive doesn’t mean your character will be respected. it doesn’t mean your character deserves to be respected. older, more experienced characters may trust your character less because they’re so damn young, no matter what you do or say to try to prove them wrong. 

TW;BLOOD. blurred out bloodandgore.

oh no… it all happened so fast.

atmzo:

One of JRR Tolkien’s ideas for Aragorn’s backstory in The Lord of the Rings was that he was actually just three or four generations removed from Isildur himself.

Then how did he survive for the thousands of years between the Second and Third Ages?

The story goes something like this:

Many hundreds of years ago, young Aragorn fell in love with an Elven woman, who exactly resembled Lúthien Tinúviel in shape and outward form.

She called herself Arwen Undómiel, the Evenstar.

He fell for her, and romanced her, and gave himself to her; together they lived in her kingdom, where her magic and her power slowed Time to a crawl for them, while hundreds and hundreds of years passed in the world outside.

At first, the Elven-maid seemed every inch a queen: beautiful, graceful, soft-spoken, meek, and with the manners befitting an upbringing in Valimar long ago.

But over time, Aragorn came to realize that his beloved had a hard, greedy, grasping side, even a cruel streak, which more and more showed itself in unexpected flashes.

Worse, she was not who she seemed to be.

Eventually Aragorn pieced together the secret.

His bride was Sauron, divested of her usual male disguise.

Greatly weakened by the loss of the Ring, Sauron yet maintained strength enough to craft a prison for the heir of Isildur: a false realm of hollow bliss and sterile delights, where the one she thought was the greatest threat to her power could languish in eternity.

A part of herself, wearing a female aspect – the gender she had hidden long ago in the deeps of time, to gain entrance as an apprentice to the smithies of Aule – remained in this pocket world, as Aragorn’s bride: a plaything to keep his attention from the bars of his gilded cage. 

But eventually, Aragorn figured it out.

Eventually, Aragorn escaped.

Thousands of years had gone by in the world outside since Aragorn had been ensnared by Sauron.

Now, emerging from long captivity in a magical sub-realm, he studied the world around him, and learned what had changed and what had endured.

He met Gandalf, and learned much from the Grey Pilgrim, and taught him some things of his own; and, in search of information, he pursued and captured Gollum, who had possessed, and been possessed by, the One Ring for so many centuries.

And, shortly before his ascent to the throne of the reunited Kingdom of Gondor and Arnor, he met his future bride: Eowyn Elfsheen, sister-daughter of Théoden, King of Rohan.

(PS: Christopher Tolkien or another amanuensis may have written this story down as part of the Secret Library Archive Project.)

1. The love of your young life died in your arms during a raider attack.
2. You bravely fought off several bandits as a young teenager.
3. You went into a series of ancient ruins on a dare and almost died — a family member or loved one saved you.
4. You went on a hunt with your village and landed the killing blow on a great beast.
5. While resting under a tree, a spirit appeared and talked to you.
6. Your village was ransacked by a group of strangers and most of the villagers were taken.
7. The Local Nobility took everything you had as “Tax”.
8. You used your powers to bully those in your village; eventually they rose up against you and you were exiled.
9. You came across a demon in your youth and battled it in a test of wills. Somehow you survived, but at what cost?
10. You were a loner and shunned in your village. Only a friendly ally stood by your side and eventually died defending your honour.
11. You have used your powers many times to protect your fellow villagers. The village considers you a hero.
12. You unknowingly entered the borders of a mysterious country or realm. Their peoples immediately arrested you.
13. You battled another great and powerful creature in your youth and won, but part of their consciousness somehow lingers within you.
14. Your family abandoned you in the wastes and local timberlands, but somehow you survived.
15. As a child you lost your temper and “accidentally” set fire to several of the houses in the village.
16. You travelled with a Ruin-Robber for a few years. The two of you discovered many interesting ancient ruins and trinkets during your travels.
17. Your seven sisters and five brothers were transformed into statues by a powerful mage after you angered them.
18. One of your loved ones was a brilliant mind and wrote any helpful stupendous articles and tomes on magic. Eventually they wronged a powerful mage and was killed in front of you.
19. You messed with one of your people’s priceless artefacts and broke it. You have been exiled by your people for your crimes.
20. You joined an order of worshippers who believed they had a higher and more powerful calling. You found them far too extreme and have since left, however they still desire you to return to their fold.
21. You became possessed by a vile spirit and killed several innocent people. You have been attempting to atone ever since.
22. You used your powers to pull the life force out of a group of rampaging raiders. Even though you saved your fellow townsfolk, they are deathly afraid of you.
23. For a brief time you ruled over a small village of people, before being pushed out by a another.
24. You were forced by an influential person to use your powers to cause much harm to many people.
25. By using calm judgment and consulting with the spirits you were able to quell a feud between families that had been going on for generations.
26. You fell in a crevice and nearly died!
27. You became lost in your environment and called out for aid. A spirit heard your pleas and guided you out. Sometimes the spirit still comes to visit you.
28. After falling into a mud puddle, you slept for centuries. You killed the person that woke you and hid their body.
29. You fought off kidnappers who were attempting to take your loved ones.
30. While on a hunt you came across the lair of a dragon. It emerged, talked to you, and let you leave.
31. You won a championship fighting contest in your youth and are considered a celebrity in your tribe.
32. You were chased out of your village after causing too much trouble with your childish pranks.
33. You were imprisoned for a crime you didn’t commit.

The man with no plan is back to post another chapter about 3 years too late again hahahahahahaha. Sorry if you’re waiting on my slow hands, I don’t write as much as I really want to. But I’m fixing that slowly but surely. At least it wasn’t actually a year right? RELEASE THE LINKS!!!

Fanfiction   |   AO3   |   Wattpad

I have a discord now. And a twitch. And i stream on the somewhat reg. Want in? Just hobble on over to twitch.tv/rudy_ska and be amazed at how many bad dumb jokes I can fit in 5 hours.

Welp, the apocalypse is upon us as Rudy Ska has, after a year of fanfic hiatus, killed two chapters WITHIN THE SAME MONTH!!! Whoda thought I’d be getting back into the swing of this so quickly. Please tell me what you think of my SWEET LINKAGE.

AO3   |   Fanfiction   |   Wattpad

Idunno about you guys, but i think this is leading somewhere. maybe like a foreshadow of something to happen later mayhaps. BUT I’m not giving anything away so if you’re intrigued, you’re gonna have to wait until the next update which, if we keep up this pace, will be on its way out soon…..ish. Shhhhhh, I got a life too. (Shameless plug for my twitch stream twitch.tv/Rudy_Ska hell yeah)

I LIVE!!! …again. I swore to myself that I would post a new chapter before the last one is officially a year old and I’ve completed that task 3 WEEKS BEFORE I WAS A LIAR!!!!!! Life getting in the way is the worst feeling but I’m making it work! Time for some LINKS!

Fanfiction | AO3 | Wattpad

So, it’s probs gonna be a while until another chapter goes up. Basically, nature of the beast here. Not saying it’s gonna be another year before I hit up the ol fanfic update again… but I’m not, NOT saying it. Anyhoozles, go read. It’s definitely not what youd expect a years worth of work to be…