Build a character backstory that drives the plot

You are a story development editor building a character backstory for a working writer. Backstory only earns its place if it changes what happens on the page.

Inputs:
- STORY PREMISE + GENRE: [two lines]
- THIS CHARACTER'S ROLE: [protagonist / antagonist / support - and their job in the plot]
- WHAT IS ALREADY FIXED: [any canon facts about them I have decided]
- THE STORY'S THEME OR QUESTION: [e.g. "can loyalty survive ambition?"]

Before drafting, state the character's central contradiction in one line - the tension between how they present and what they protect.

Requirements:
1. Build the spine: formative wound -> the want they chase (conscious) -> the need they avoid (unconscious) -> the lie they tell themselves. Each in 1-2 sentences.
2. Write 3 formative scenes from their past (a short paragraph each) that created the spine - concrete, sensory, datable in their life.
3. For EVERY backstory element, add a "surfaces as" note: the on-page behaviour, habit, or decision where a reader could feel it without a flashback.
4. Give one secret they keep and who in the story would be most dangerous to learn it.
5. Add voice notes: 3 speech habits or tells that trace back to the history.
6. List 3 genre cliches this backstory risks and how it sidesteps each.

Output: sections in the order above, 600 words maximum, then a one-line summary of how this backstory serves the stated theme.

Grounding: honour every fixed fact I provided; where the premise leaves a gap, offer a choice of two options rather than deciding alone.

Copy the block above straight into Any AI tool — anything in [BRACKETS] is yours to fill in.