18 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips Day 13: What about Backstory? Too much, too early will stop a reader, agent, editor….
Short post but important to getting an agent or an editor to say yes to a story: Backstory is the description of your character’s background and ordinary world, what you think the reader needs to know to understand the character and the story. Many inexperienced writers include too much backstory right away, bogging down the plot and often making the reader put down the manuscript, or worse, fall asleep reading it!
It’s hard to know the right amount and where to put it, so I’ve found it’s best to just go ahead and right it in up front in the first three chapters, and then in the revising stage, figure out what doesn’t need to be there, what can be told in a different way, or what can be moved to another place.
A reader is willing to be carried along in the story without knowing the whole history. Think of THE HUNGER GAMES. Much of the details about Panem, its history, and the games themselves are only revealed slowly as the story goes on, and some is never revealed at all.
You, as the writer, need to know the backstory, but you’ll discover the reader does not need to know as much as you. This is why after you’ve written the story and revised it, leaving in only what you think it necessary, get someone else to read it and ask them to tell you when they hit a confusing part. This is usually a sign you may have cut too much backstory.
Read some books that are similar to what you are trying to write, and as you read, jot down what you learn about the character and the setting, chapter by chapter. It’s a fascinating exercise. I’ve done it myself and have been surprised at the results.
I had to figure out how much backstory to include at what stage in my science fiction trilogy. Did I get the right amount at the right time? Hard to tell. The other thing about backstory is reader preference. Some want more upfront so they can better understand the story. Some want less so they can puzzle it out along the way. You can’t please all readers all the time.
If you missed my earlier writing and publishing tips posts, you can start reading them here.
