I remember reading somewhere than if you don't have the backstory explained in the first (however many) pages or chapters, then you've started your story in the wrong place. But I can't recall how many pages or chapters that was. I think I'm doing a fairly good job weaving it in with the action, but I'm worried that some of it will seem like information dump rather than blending into the story, and I worry that I'm dragging it out too long. Does anyone know how soon the backstory needs to be wrapped up? Am I worried about the wrong thing?
Yes. Why do you need any back-story? (Ask yourself this, don't answer me!) It's the same as world-building; you may think that your sci-fi set on a planet with such high gravity that life evolved as wheels to avoid pumping the blood upwards is really cool, so you spend a whole chapter describing it, the reason why the gravity is so high, how the flora and fauna evolved, etc., but why does the READER need to know? Assuming the back-story passes this test, how quickly do you need it? You need it in good time, so that the reader doesn't discover that your MC spends his holidays SCUBA-diving one line before he volunteers to swim underwater to save the day. For the rest, let it in gradually. Mention his SCUBA-diving when he's chatting up the attendant at the aquarium; mention his degree in mechanical engineering when he's working on that E-Type Jaguar he's restoring for a hobby... Don't follow a rule that says you must do THIS by this point in the book.
Makes sense. And looking over what I've written, that's pretty much what I've done. No pages on end, just a paragraph describing how she met the person just introduced and why they're close. A paragraph explaining how she came to work in the field she works in. Not critical to the plot, but important to understanding the characters. Keep it to what readers need to know. They don't need to know the life stories of Boudreaux and his daughter Gabbie, they just need to know what role the two play in the story. But I think I'll just highlight that paragraph, keep writing and edit it later. Thanks!
This feels sort of backwards. I think that there should be zero pages/chapters that are identifiably backstory. Backstory should drift in when it feels relevant--even if the actual relevance comes later. There's a fair to middling chance that the above describes backstory that's too backstoryish. Do you have to tell us "why they're close", or can you have events that are both relevant to the plot and happen to demonstrate that closeness? Similar to the field she works in--events relevant to the plot that for some reason glance back at when she entered her field.
There are 2-3 components to any exposition: the information the person (either an omniscient narrator or a POV character) revealing the information and, if the information is being conveyed through dialogue – instead of narration or internal monologue – then the person receiving the information What is happening that makes the expositor think about the information that they are about to exposit, and how does that information impact them differently from how the same information would impact a different character?
I agree with this entirely. If the backstory fits in with the scene/what is currently happening, then include it. Just include the information pertaining to what is happening though. For example: You go and find a new friend. I would consider your whole life up to the point where you and this new friend became acquainted backstory. Are you going to tell this friend every single little detail about your life in one sitting the first time you go to their house? No. Your life story (backstory) filters in as the conversation develops.
In my fantasy wip one of the main characters' backstory doesn't get filled in for a good 60k words, because part of the point of the plot is that they're hiding it. Guess I'm doin' it wrong
Lol ... Good comments from everyone. My first instinct is to argue, "But you don't know how I wrote it! I only gave the info that the reader needed to understand!" But when I went looking for a paragraph to paste here as an example, I discovered that each one had too much information to really be a good example. Which means I need to do some editing. It would be better if the newly introduced character made a smartass comment about "I've known you since [blah blah blah] don't think you can start hiding things from me now!" or something to that effect, rather than explaining to the reader all the tribulations they've been through together. Thank you!
I think the danger can come if you become fixated on paring down (or eliminating) backstory, to the extent that the reader can't quite figure out what's happening in the first few pages or the first chapter. Me? I would rather get 'too much' backstory—provided it's interestingly presented, and doesn't read like a dry history lesson—than too little. Nothing (except SPAG errors) makes me put a book down faster than discovering that I've just read two pages and I still don't have a clue what's going on. By 'going on' I don't mean I need to know the answers to all the questions raised by the story. I'm happy to keep reading to find out what happens next, or why things are happening the way they are. But presumably the story isn't about 'who the heck is speaking here?' or 'are we in somebody's basement or in a parking lot or out in the forest or what?'
There's nothing inherently wrong with using exposition to fill in backstory, just that it needs to be done at the appropriate time and place in the story. Be careful you don't turn your characters into puppets that conveniently reveal important fragments of backstory at the most convenient times.
I'm going to kind of sort of disagree here. I think it's more a matter of hooking the reader in by various means, so that they have no choice but to keep turning pages. Give them breadcrumbs to follow.
Aye, but the reader's choice can also be to put the book down if it's not making sense. Intriguing isn't the same as confusing. A reader may well be hooked by the question of why something strange is happening. That's intriguing. However, they are unlikely to be hooked by being unable to follow what the heck is going on. That's confusing. The wrong kind of mystery. While I'm totally in the camp of eliminating the boring 'info dump' I think that sometimes—like many other writer's cautionary tips—some writers go to extremes and decide that they'll avoid the info dump by giving the reader no information at all and jump straight into 'media res.' This may make sense to the writer, and it can work, in certain stories. But it can also leave the reader totally uninvolved in the story. Not so much hooked as bewildered. Taking the purist approach to eliminating preliminary information is like tackling over-use of adverbs by refusing to ever use any. Baby, bathwater, and all that. What a writer thinks his story is like (because it's clear as a bell in his own head) and the reader's experience of trying to get into it it can be totally different. Writing is about communicating what's in your head in a way that readers get it and follow along. You don't just fling breadrumbs at them. You skillfully drop them in a way that leads the reader along the path you want them to follow. If some attention isn't paid to setting up a story and warming the reader up to it, then the reader's experience can be like being approached on the street by some individual waving his arms and yelling about saving your soul. Exciting, eh? Whoop woop, I'm IN! How can I turn away? You don't have a clue where this fellow is coming from—although HE certainly does. Okay, if you stick around to listen he MIGHT make sense and hook you in ...eventually. However, you're much more likely to just avoid eye contact and give him a body swerve, aren't you? He's been converted, and he thinks his enthusiasm and sincerity is enough to get you instantly converted too.
Yes indeed! You bring up a good point, and why it's a good thing to have someone not intimately involved with the story read it with fresh eyes. Of course having one's own editor takes care of most issues you mention, but those are the eyes of a professional reader. I had one of my nieces read the first chapters of my WIP and she did have an interesting comment as to the relationship between two main characters. I had in fact not given enough backstory, and as you say, assumed the reader knew what was in my head... it took little enough work to correct the problem, a line or two in the second chapter was all that was needed. I also quickened the pacing of the third chapter, reducing it to essentials. Fluff removal, as it were.
From this, it seems that this is your first draft. As far as backstory, I suggest you write it all up, extremely detailed, everything you need to know about the story... and put it in a separate file called "backstory" and refer to it as you write. Backstory is important for you the writer, to make your story consistent and logical. Most of it is not important for the reader, and a big dump of this early in the story can be a turn-off. The first chapter, and in fact the first page, should some action or surprise that hooks the reader, makes them care enough about the characters to keep reading. How they got in that initial situation can come later, bit by bit. An example: My "Eagle and the Dragon" begins with hundreds of Roman soldiers marching to their execution at the hands of the Parthians. I name the place, Carrhae, somewhere in Syria, the Persian king Orodes II, and the Roman commander, Marcus Licinius Crassus, not in the story but cursed by one of the soldiers for leading them into disaster. Anyone who wants to look up the facts can do so, but the story is not about the Battle of Carrhae. It is about the fact that some of the survivors wound up in China, where their descendants became translators for the first Chinese mission to Rome, and the first Roman mission to China a century and a half later. The key of that first chapter is that the Romans are struggling to find a way to escape their inevitable fate, and the reader wants to know how or if that happens, not why they are there, or where they will wind up. Also, don't spend too much time on that first chapter of the first draft. Odds are it will not survive the first edit, because the story will change as you tell it, and a better opening will suggest itself. If that first chapter got you the writer interested in these characters, understanding their motivations, and curious enough to continue writing, then it has served its purpose, to make you write chapter two. When you get to THE END, then you can go back and revise the first (and all) chapters as necessary. In my writing, I often include a lot of narrative exposition, because it sets me inside the story, a feeling of where/when and why the characters are in this place. On the first edit, a lot of that become scaffolding that held the story together while I wrote it. And like scaffolding, you will take most of it away when done, or go back and polish some temporary scaffolding exposition into a more digestible permanent structure for the reader, like making it dialogue.
This. Ed's book is excellent. It's an incredibly complicated story with many MANY named characters, and at no point did I have any trouble following what was going on. The immediate situation he created for the Prologue (personal trauma in the aftermath of the Battle of Carrhae) was so gripping I just HAD to continue. (And yes, it sent me to Wikipedia later on, to learn more about the actual battle. But that was after I'd finished reading the book and was eager to learn more.)
i'm in the middle of re-reading some of my favorite books. they're dark and creepy and deeply rooted in history with characters who leap off the page. i find myself repeatedly wondering what this author does so well. how does he weave this amazing story with so much background information without falling flat? i am a notoriously ADD reader; how have i not abandoned ship? what hooked me? why do i care?? i just chewed through a 10-chapter-long flashback (dropped in the middle of a tense situation that has the MC tied to a rafter in mortal danger) that had every reason to bore me to tears. it didn't. i think the reason is twofold: imagery and efficient word-use. even the most mundane description of a character is heavy with implication because the POV character drips her disdain and arrogance. the subject of her irritation is described as "brutish" and "crude" as he runs off to play harmless tricks on the fellow who lives up the road. her creepy fascination with death is layered over a dark monologue about leeches. a brief jest at her expense is blown up in her head to be "mortifying" and fuels her thoughts of vengeance against those who have wronged her. and the author doesn't waste a single word. I read once that you should always ask yourself "what is the purpose of this paragraph?" and/or "What does this sentence tell the reader?". those questions don't require just one answer. in fact the best reading i've done has had multiple answers to each of those questions. in the case of the books i'm re-reading now, i learn so much about every character with every sentence. the POV character's snide comments aren't just telling me about herself (selfish, conniving), but she also casts light on the man she speaks of (big, jovial, uncouth), AND it's with awareness her viewpoint: she sees a heathen of a man who is beneath her. the reader gets all that information from 2-4 sentences, tops. i don't think the backstory has to be at the beginning of the book as long as i get a good impression of the character(s). i can know that this secondary character is a complete toolbag without having to know that his father is abusive; in fact, i'd argue that withholding backstory offers us more reason to continue reading. we know the MC is a coward, but why? what happened to him? as @jannert pointed out, the art is in skillfully dropping the breadcrumbs.
This. I'm just going to write it the way it unfolds in my head, write as much or as little as seems right, then worry about cutting, fine-tuning, and rearranging when I get the first draft finished and it's time to edit. After my own edits, it'll be time to pass it to others to read and critique. Getting hung up at this early stage (11,348 words as of half an hour ago, which means I should finish up the first draft around the first week of February) is only going to slow the forward momentum - there will be time for editing later. Now I just need to get words on paper. That said, I got hung up on backstory a few days ago and pounded out (in a separate document) a 2100 word prologue. Two days later, I incorporated about 20 words of it into the main manuscript - it was really all that was necessary. So I'll take your advice and continue to do that when I have backstory that needs to come out. I also have a timeline drawn up as well as a list of characters and a 1.5 page synopsis. On my list for later this week is to write up index cards for each plot point and tape them to the glass wall behind my desk, to be rearranged/edited as needed. AFTER Thanksgiving so the whole household doesn't gawk at my scrawling. Thank you all. Keep the thoughts coming - it's good for all of us!
Yeah, I'm having a similar problem with my story, and I've found that doing something much like that is very helpful. In a previous work I did (and in the one that I'm doing now too), I wrote a comment at the top (I work on Google Docs so that I don't have to stay confined to just one computer, which I've found is amazingly helpful) of my document where I write important information about each of the characters as well as go over the most important events of the plot that I want to make sure I include, adding more on as I feel necessary. That way it's always there when I open it. The only downside to this is that the text box gets really long. By the time it reaches about half of the page, that's usually when I make the call to just copy it and create a totally new document. You can also do something similar to the index card method on this document with a table or something, and that way it's all in one document and you know where to find everything. I hope you figure this all out!
No you don't need to have backstory in the first 1-3 chapters. You can sprinkle it about through the story. Just depends on how you go about it. Good ways of peppering it in are when the MC is doing mundane tasks, or if something in story is kinda related to an event in the past (not in story). Though I would not just try and squeeze in everything from the 'past', as it will take away from the main focus of the story. You can however, write a Prequel of sorts if you feel the need to dive more into their earlier days if you want. So technically you don't need any backstory at all, to establish a good story. It is just another element that can add to a characters growth, but it is not a necessary step to take to get a good sense about the MC.
