Subject: How to Convey Backstory for Secondary and Tertiary Characters

How To Write the Future podcast ep. 225 + Creativity Sparks News



How to Convey Backstory for Secondary and Tertiary Characters



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Friday, Oct. 9, 2026

Hi Friend,

I've always loved the magic of writing: turning a vision or desire into words on a page.


But writing isn't only magic. 


It's also craft -- and craft can be learned. I had to learn the deeper story craft that helps a vision become a living novel.


That's what I strive to create with the Edit Lab membership for science fiction and fantasy novelists: a way to protect the magic while learning the craft, finding the next right edit, and doing the work with other writers beside you.


More about Edit Lab below.


And to the magic of creating stories!


Do you love that too?



❤️


In this week in Creativity Sparks:

  • I talk on the podcast this week about how to convey backstory for secondary and tertiary characters.

  • We have an upcoming Substack Live on Monday on character agency and stakes.

  • We're going to talk about brand narrative ecosystem in a few weeks in the Creative Entrepreneur Incubator Substack channel.

  • You can check out the upcoming Writing Momentum Circle that starts Oct. 24th. Applications close October 17th.


Upcoming events for writers and creative entrepreneurs


❤️ Join our Author Substack Live

 

Monday, October 12th, 10:15 a.m. Pacific, on:

 


with me and Gala Russ:


Let's play and brainstorm together.




This week on Substack:


❤️


🎤 How to Convey Backstory for Secondary and Tertiary Characters

How To Write The Future podcast, episode 225


“You only need to reveal backstory when the reader absolutely needs to know it.”



– Beth Barany




In my latest episode, I describe how you can filter backstory through the secondary and tertiary characters and shares tools to reveal the story’s past.


Plus, I share how to use your characters’ thoughts, feelings and history to help convey the worldbuilding in your story.


There is also an invitation to sign up to my Edit Lab, a $10/month subscription with a monthly call.



❤️


 

ABOUT EDIT LAB

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers, Ready to do revisions?


Then join our Edit Lab for support and live feedback.


If your goal is to publish your novels, community is one of the best ways to improve.

Bring your stuck scene or revision question. Leave knowing your next move.


One writer brought in a very raw, mostly dialogue scene because she wasn’t sure whether the banter and chemistry were working. 


Together we discovered that the chemistry was already there.


The next steps were small and concrete: clarify speaker tags and add setting/interiority in a later pass. 


She didn’t leave with a total rewrite; she left knowing what was working and what to do next


That’s what Edit Lab is for: helping science fiction and fantasy novelists find the next right edit, with support around them.


Our next Edit Lab is next month, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 10am Pacific/1pm Eastern.


Topic: Clarifying your story's location 


Only $10/month.


Join Edit Your Future now.



“Way worth the price of admission!” — Sci-Fi Writer



❤️

Are you actively writing, revising, rebuilding, or returning to a fiction project?


The Writing Momentum Circle, facilitated by Iman Llompart, is a four-month facilitated space for writers who want consistent support, dedicated writing time, meaningful conversation, and help finding their next move.


This isn’t a traditional critique group, writing class, or word-count challenge. It offers active facilitation, guided story exploration, protected manuscript time, accountability, and the continuity of the same small cohort.


Iman Llompart knows what it feels like to care deeply about a book and still struggle to move forward. 


Writing sprints helped for a while, but as she approached the end of her manuscript, the pressure to finish magnified her imposter’s syndrome. 


Brainstorming with other writers helped, too—yet she watched them produce work consistently while she remained stuck.


That experience prompted her to create the Writing Momentum Circle for writers who may also be trying to find their way back to their manuscripts. 


It brings together collaborative brainstorming, writing time, and accountability -- not critiques -- with room for each writer to work on what their own project needs.


You’re not joining to help Iman finish her book. 


You’re joining a facilitated space for moving your own project forward. 


Iman’s role is to create the structure, ask useful questions, and keep the conversation moving. 


The Circle combines guided story exploration with protected manuscript time, so you can explore a creative crossroads and then work on your next move -- not simply talk about being stuck.


For example:


Are you stuck on a character’s next decision? 


You could bring that crossroads to the Circle, clarify what’s blocking you, explore possibilities without anyone prescribing your story, and choose an option to work on during manuscript time.


Starts: Saturday, October 24

Limited to six writers, with a focus on science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction.


Applications are open now:


You're invited to check it out here!


❤️

Happy Writing!



Best,

Beth


PS. When I'm not working, I putter around in my patio garden and watch the birds. My cats too! The latter not the former!





🌀 Substack Lives most Mondays -- for Fiction Writers!

Subscribe to get the notifications.


⭐️ Substack Lives -- for Creative/Author Entrepreneurs.
Subscribe to get the notificatons to our Creative Entrepreneur Incubator



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If you find my resources helpful, please forward them to a friend who may need them too.


Help me help more writers!


Thanks!


❤️



Beth Barany 
Creativity Coach for Writers

Teacher, Speaker, Workshop Facilitator
bethbarany.com


I not only teach and coach novelists, I am one too! 


*Magical Tales of Romance, Mystery, and Adventure* author.bethbarany.com



Including the award-winning, Henrietta The Dragon Slayer (Book 1), and Into The Black, about Janey McCallister space station investigator (Book 1)



__________________________


 ❤️ 


Here to empower you with core principles, mindset tools, and doable roadmaps to build your sustainable, thriving, creative career on your own terms.


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Passionate about supporting science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction writers; and creative entrepreneurs serving writers.


🎬 


Filmmaker with a BIG mission: to celebrate warrior women!


 
 

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Support This Creative Entrepreneur


My mission is to support your adventure as a creative and step into your next best self.


If you want to support my mission, I invite you to:


📚  buy my books


☕️  buy me a coffee


🎬  support my Henrietta The Dragon Slayer short film


Or share my products or services with your friends. Thanks!


❤️

 
 
 

Beth Barany is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy novelist, and certified creativity coach for writers.


For the last 20+ years, she's been working with writers of all kinds.


She specializes in helping sci-fi and fantasy publishing-oriented novelists experience clarity, so they can write, revise, and proudly publish their books to the delight of their readers. 

Here be the legalese: In connection with the operation of this newsletter and business, Creativity Sparks includes affiliate links to trusted partners. Barany Consulting earns a commission from the Affiliate Links which commission is based on the number of sales that are made as a result of users of the Newsletter clicking over to the Affiliate Link and purchasing from the Affiliate Link a product and/or service. Thus endth the legalese.

I live in the territory of Huichin, part of the stolen land of the Chochenyo Muwekma Ohlone, the successors of the historic and sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County, in Oakland, California, the San Francisco Bay Area. Northern Hemisphere. Earth.


The Solar System. → Carina–Sagittarius Arm in the Milky Way galaxy. Milky Way subgroup → Local Group → Local Sheet → Virgo Supercluster → Laniakea Supercluster → Local Hole → Observable universe → Universe.


*

I stand with people of Ukraine and all peoples 🎗️ in their fight for freedom from oppression and the right to self-determine. Yes, all peoples. Not just some.



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