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  • Writer's Digest

    DISTINGUISHING BACKSTORY FROM HISTORY

    Nov 08, 2018 2 minutes
    BY STEVEN JAMES

    You board a bus full of people. Each of them has a reason to be here, just like you do. That reason—where they’re going and what they’re hoping will happen when they arrive—is what matters right now.

    Their entire life history does not.

    Backstory and history are not the same thing.

    is all that has happened to those people on the bus before today. is that fraction of a fraction of a fraction of their history that’s relevant to them being here, now, riding this specific bus to a specific bus stop for a specific reason.

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