Friday, March 09, 2012

The Backstory on the Word "Backstory"

When an actor becomes famous, or A list, where they came from and what kind of upbringing they had becomes intriguing and interesting and the audience enjoys knowing this information. The media calls this their "backstory," or the story before the story.

These are becoming extremly popular of late, and the word backstory is being bantied around like a new Baskin Robbins ice cream flavor that everyone just discovered. The word backstory has even spread beyond humans to cover inanimate objects or events, such as "The backstory on Valentine's Day" or "the backstory behind the invention of the cell phone."

Assuming this word only came into being a few short years ago, I looked it up in Merriam-Webster. It turns out, according to MB, that the first known use of the term goes all the way back to 1984. The AP Stylebook, which most writers access today as a guideline for ensuring they are using the correct spelling and grammar, had no record of the word backstory.

Wikipedia, on the other hand, provided a more detailed but similar definition to MB, and while no one seems to be able to say who first said the word, Wikipedia notes that use of a backstory as a storytelling technique goes all the way back to the days of Aristotle.

Well there you have it. The backstory on backstory.

Please check out my novel, In Fashion's Web on Amazon.

No comments: