Do You Include Backstory in Your Memoir?

In a book consultation a few days ago, I suggested that a client could make her story more compelling by cutting the backstory (her first chapter was actually called “backstory”–cute in theory but ho-hum-ish in reality). Rather than make the backstory the appetizer of her book, I suggested the author envision it as a spice to sprinkle judiciously. In general–and there can be exceptions–when you start with the agonizing details of your drawn out illness on page 1, you lose us. We want to hear about the day it all started to change when you joined a group of strangers[...]