A story is usually about some amazing thing that happens. It's about people having to make difficult decisions and having to act based on those decisions. But stories are not just about stuff that happened; they are also about why that all matters.
Who are these people? Why would I care about them? What makes them relatable or redeemable? To answer these questions, we must look to their origins. Who were these people before we met them on page 1?
Look at a story like Watchmen. The vast majority of this story takes place in the past. We learn not only about who the characters were and what led them to be who they are in the present, but we learned about their predecessors and how they paved the way for the main characters to even exist in the capacities that they did.
I have found in my own creative process that I may come up with an interesting premise for a scene or a character, but once I ask myself where the story is, I look at my character's origins and that is where I find my story.
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