the.com/backstory
The excuse your present self prepared in advance, disguised as history.
means The background events and history that explain why a person or character is the way they are now.
from A 20th-century compound built from 'back' (behind, prior) plus 'story' — coined in theater and screenwriting circles to name the invented history a writer builds behind a character, the life implied before the first scene starts. It stayed mostly a Hollywood trade term for decades before leaking into everyday speech for anyone's personal history or cover narrative.
- origin
- coined for film scripts, not therapy sessions
- function
- makes villains sympathetic without making them right
- danger
- everyone is the hero of their own backstory
- overuse
- prequels exist because backstory sells better than story