Why the Tragic Backstory?
Hello, friends; I wrote this on Monday, but a series of events involving school and binge-reading prevented me from posting it until today. I, like most of the people I'm aware of who read this, am a writer. Part of writing is having a character to write about. Which, of course, leads us to crafting a backstory. Now, if you've read or watched or even written anything ever, you'll probably have noticed a common type of backstory. It's called the Tragic Backstory. It's a favorite amongst storytellers of all kinds, in which one or many tragedies litter the character's past. This varies from the death of loved ones, to a lack of loved ones; from losing everything, to having nothing to begin with. There's no limit to the tragedies a writer can whip up to torture their precious creation with. Now, I ask the question that I'm sure many have already discussed; Why do people like tragic backstories? Be it writing them, watching them,
