Regarding when and when not to use childhood backstory,
surely the answer is when it elucidates the adult charaster's
motivations.
Take Jim Thompson as a random example (somehow my random
examples are always Jom Thompson). Wouldn't it be useful if
we had some inkling as to why there is a killer inside Lou
Ford? It's probably true that JT indulged a little too much
in pop psychology and tracing adult depravity to
incestuous/abusive childhoods, but IMHO they added flavour to
his novels (and flavour to the novelist's image).
I'm now wondering what The Killer Inside Me and A Swell
Looking Babe (to name but two) would be like without the
backstory, of course...
--- Charlie Williams
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