Character Background - Bringing the past to present

Character Background - Bringing the past to present Once you have your character defined, you have given them the appropriate tags, personalities, and built them a background, how do you reveal the knowledge they posses from the background into the present? How much of the past do you reveal to your readers at one time? No more than is needed to make your reader understand your character's emotional state of mind. If you think back into your own background, you will see that attitude, and behaviours have been set over long-time conditioning. Just as fears have been set from past bad experiences. You need to tie your characters attitude to a key element from their past. You can try bringing that part of the past through a mental picture that flashes into your characters mind. Example: Your character has an absolute fear of snakes. Perhaps they were bite as a child. One way you can reveal this information is the present is: Cara shone her flashlight into the mouth of the cave. Everything looked ok but she couldn't get rid of that dreadful feeling in the pit of her stomach. Making her way into the cave, she suddenly froze. Snakes! In a flash she was back in the blackness of the dessert so long ago - feeling the sharp sting just above her ankle; the feeling of the dry scaly coil wrapping itself around her leg, slowly moving upwards. Cara's control exploded. Staggering backwards, arms thrashing, she screamed; a raw, incomprehensible, garbled cry. A fragrance of fresh baked apple pie could transform a character from the place they are back to a time spent with their mother or grandmother. The familiar scent of a perfume that has a calming effect on a child. Abruptly there was a loud crash. My eyes widen with fear. Stretching as far as my seat belt would allow laughter fills me at the sight of the tiny people walking away. A loud roar wipes the laughter away. All the fear hiding inside me is suddenly back as we take off. I grab my mother's hand tightly and squeeze my eyes shut. My small body is pushed into the softness of the blue seat, as we gather speed. Unexpectedly, the pressure is gone. My head spins towards the window as my eyes fly open. Wispy streaks of white fluff fly by as we race through the light blue sky with no feeling of movement. My mother's smile says, everything is fine. I close my eyes filled with a peaceful calm, the fear of the unknown chased away by the comfort of love and the familiar smell of perfume. There is no reason to provide background for every little thing your character does or knows; sometimes it is enough that a character has a fear or a love for something. However if it is an important part of your characters trait you now have one way to express that background in order to handle the problem or situation.