Question on introduction to the story.

Nooooooo. Don't do it. An introduction would be all tell, no show, and people tend to skip over that. If you're afraid of having to jump back too much, try revealing your backstory in little digestible pieces as it's needed, through dialogue or something. And if there's a huge pivotal event that everyone needs to know about, maybe you could write that event as an actual scene, and just include it as a prologue.

I don't want to be all sour grapes. If you really think it will work for your novel, try it, and then post it on the Share Your Work forum to see how people react. That way you'll know whether it works or not

-Feathers

If so much has happened in the past, make that the first part of your novel or the first novel of a pair.

I would rather see a prologue than an introduction. In my own experience, the novel I just finished has a huge back story, but I sprinkled it in as the reader needed it and in such a way that I didn't have to write either a prologue or an intro. It can be done. I can only speak for myself, but if you handed me an intro that just gives me a lesson on world history before I get to see anything happen, I would be annoyed and probably skip it.

And, you know, original Star Wars didn't really need that scrolling marquee intro, it was a homage to the 1930s film serials that had to remind the audience of the story so far, leading up to last Saturday morning's cliffhanger. Once Vader caught up with Leia, we learned what was going on quickly enough.

But if you really want to deliver background info, one of your main characters only has to talk to a surly local who will grudgingly trade his skewed knowledge for a mug of mead, or a chatty serving wench willing to do anything for a half-florin.

-Derek

All stories have a background story -it's a question of how much of that background the reader needs to know up front in order to follow the unfolding story.

You need to know it all at the outset to enable you to write the story, but if the opening is in the right place chances are the reader does not.

If at some point in the story the reader needs to know a little back detail then that is the time when it should be revealed - preferably reluctantly by somebody to someone with a need to know that information. (As DP says)