Backstory: What to Use, What Not to Use

IThinkICan29 · Mar 13, 2007

I have to thank Elgato for this statement:

If I learned nothing else, I did gain a better understanding on how to use, and not use, a backstory.

I really wrestled with backstory in my first novel--mainly info dumps. I tell ya' there's an art to it. It's like creating a replica of the Mona Lisa using connect the dots. Ok..ok...I'm being dramatic, but I'd like to know how you guys handle backstory. Do you have a formula [please say you don't]? I usually input a skeleton chapter into Word, print it, and try to come up with at least twenty questions that I'd want to be answered if I were the reader, answer the questions, and then work a small amount of the backstory in that way, that's assuming it's needed.....and that my friends...is a whole other story.

Garpy · Mar 13, 2007

That's actually a pretty good way to do it. Might try it. As for me, I tend to wing it...trusting to gut instinct. That's not always successful. Quite often during the 2nd draft, I'll weed out the excess exposition. One thing I would say though is this, I think, in most cases, the backstory turns out to be quite simple if you render it down to its most basic. And that means you can get it across in one or two succinct pieces of dialog.

Mind you, I come from a script writing background, where less is always more. So maybe you don't want to listen to my advice.

scribbler1382 · Mar 13, 2007

Think of it as knowing some facts about a subject because you just watched a really cool episode of NOVA. It's the next morning, and you're talking to your fellow cubicle monkeys at work. Now, if you just keep starting every sentence with info from the show, you're at the least going to be alone and avoided for the rest of the day. At worst, you're going to get smacked. But, if amid all the other topics of conversation, something that was in that episode seems RELEVANT, you'll trot it out and share it.

Like that.

swvaughn · Mar 13, 2007

I write pages and pages and pages of backstory... and never put them in my novels. They're for my reference, and I try to choose what information needs to be explained (non-intrusively) to the reader, and what information I can show through my characters' actions.

Feeding little bits of backstory into my narrative is the tricky bit. I always have the most trouble with the beginning of a sequel. Tempting to dump everything from the previous novel into the first chapter, oh yes.

Maprilynne · Mar 13, 2007

swvaughn said:
I write pages and pages and pages of backstory... and never put them in my novels.

That's great! Whether you realize it or not, that will give your characters depth. I have pages and pages of backstory myself. Some of it is really interesting! But it'll never make it into the book. I think with back story you want to include only what is absolutely necessary for the polt and character development.

And when I look at the pages and pages of backstory I have left over, I just remember that when I am a BFA (Big Famour Author) *rolls eyes* I can put those kinds of juicy tidbits up on my website.

Maprilynne

swvaughn · Mar 13, 2007

Maprilynne said:
And when I look at the pages and pages of backstory I have left over, I just remember that when I am a BFA (Big Famour Author) *rolls eyes* I can put those kinds of juicy tidbits up on my website.

Maprilynne

LOL -- yeah, all those pages and pages just sitting around can start to do strange things to your mind. They look so much like a Real Story, ya know? And it's easy to convince yourself you can (and should) fit all that lovely prose in somewhere.

Must... resist... temptation!

IrishScribbler · Mar 13, 2007

swvaughn said:
I write pages and pages and pages of backstory... and never put them in my novels. They're for my reference, and I try to choose what information needs to be explained (non-intrusively) to the reader, and what information I can show through my characters' actions.

I do something similar--I write journal entries and interviews of my characters, extensive character bios, and sometimes scenes that could've happened in the backstory. I find myself referring to those pages (and adding to them, when necessary) often, and I even got an idea for an entirely separate short story from a backstory scene I wrote.

Of course, I may need to convince my fiance we're getting a two-bedroom apartment so I can have room for my extensive collection of research materials and files of character bios, scenes, and notes.

weatherfield · Mar 13, 2007

swvaughn said:
They look so much like a Real Story, ya know? And it's easy to convince yourself you can (and should) fit all that lovely prose in somewhere.

Must... resist... temptation!

Yeah, it's so alluring, isn't it? I always produce tons of backstory that never makes it in, although it can be tempting to try and wedge it in somewhere. However, one of my teachers had a whole bank of pet aphorisms, and one of his favorites was, "You're not even close to Being There (meaning a skilled writer, I guess) until you're cutting really good stuff." So I just tell myself that leaving out good stuff is good for me--it shows moral fiber

kdnxdr · Mar 13, 2007

I'm still so new to writing and there's so much I don't know. Would ya'll mind me asking what your definition is for back story? I think I'm about half way through my first book and my back story is the heart of my main story but it only weaves it's way through. Is that all wrong?

AllieB · Mar 13, 2007

Well, my understanding of back story is all the history that comes before the story begins: the characters' past actions/relationships/regrets, any major events that have occurred and affected the storyline before the first chapter begins, etc.

I also tend to do character sketches and/or brief paragraphs of backstory so that I know where my characters and events are coming from. But none of that ends up in the actual novel. As for introducing any key backstory, I try to do it mostly through dialogue and characters' internal thoughts.

It's tough for new writers to figure out what to leave out, I think. I know I learned the hard way.

scribbler1382 · Mar 13, 2007

Yeah, pretty much everything that ever happened up to the inciting moment that could come into play later on.

jonereb · Mar 13, 2007

My backstory stares back, daring me. I highlight the text, but my finger is powerless to hit delete.

PeeDee · Mar 13, 2007

My backstory is in my head. I know who my characters are and what they're doing here, and where they've come from, and.....

....unless it's relevant to the current story, I leave it out. Do you need to know that my MC has been divorced twice? No, you don't. It doesn't affect the story. So you don't find out.

Stephen King said that life stories are best saved for late nights in bars before closing time, and only if you're buying. This is true. I wish I could say that no one in real life ever tells me their history up to that moment, but alas, they do. But I DO know that I want to throttle them when they start in on it. I'm not going to inflict that on my readers...

scribbler1382 · Mar 13, 2007

hehe...yeah, it's probably best to think of backstory as those family vacation films Uncle Buck pulls out at the family gatherings after he's hung the wine-stained tablecloth over his cabinet with all those pipecleaner men he made inside.

PeeDee · Mar 13, 2007

scribbler1382 said:
hehe...yeah, it's probably best to think of backstory as those family vacation films Uncle Buck pulls out at the family gatherings after he's hung the wine-stained tablecloth over his cabinet with all those pipecleaner men he made inside.

Oh God. There's one of those in every family, isn't there? I keep picturing Randy Quaid from the National Lampoon Vacation movies......*breaks out in hives*

Elodie-Caroline · Mar 13, 2007

I cheated with my back story, all ten or more pages of it. My gal is a recluse rock star, so in this day and age of modern technology, I done her her own website in the story, and then I sat her bodyguard down to read it.

Elodie

PeeDee · Mar 13, 2007

Elodie-Caroline said:
I cheated with my back story, all ten or more pages of it. My gal is a recluse rock star, so in this day and age of modern technology, I done her her own website in the story, and then I sat her bodyguard down to read it.

Elodie

Is "bodyguard reads web-site," interesting in the story?

If so, then it works out just dandy.

Elodie-Caroline · Mar 13, 2007

Yes, he thought he knew what she was like because of her old press cuttings and through the media etc, and then found out that she was the complete opposite of what he thought she was. I wouldn't have added it if I didn't think it was necessary. There was too much info to put in with all the dialogue I'd done between them, of course, he gets to know her that way too, but knowing about someone's past makes them what they are and you can understand them better.

PeeDee said:
Is "bodyguard reads web-site," interesting in the story?

If so, then it works out just dandy.

IThinkICan29 · Mar 13, 2007

I had pages and pages of backstory for my first novel. I thought I'd really found my characters in doing all these character sketches, mini scenes with dialouge--guess what? I didn't. When I finally sat down to write, my characters ran off the pages, leaving me a jiggling pool of emotional "blah". Ah hell...I was stuck! Stuck like Chuck if you will. So my wonderful 30 pages of backstory, character couch sessions and what not all went bye-bye. I've given myself a 5 page limit to backstory, mini scenes, etc--that's not including the brainstorming and outline I jot down on any surface that doesn't run away from me.

My characters tend to NOT react the way I'd planned which often times makes some of my backstory obsolete, and me berry berry happy once I finally surrender and just accept them for who they are. My twenty questions method really helps me manipulate [if you will] the backstory to my character's liking. I know because they tell me....LOL

Elodie-Caroline · Mar 13, 2007

With the back story and how some don't think it isn't necessary etc, what about Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire. That is mostly back story and it works because it tells a tale well, I like it anyway, I've read it twice

James D. Macdonald · Mar 13, 2007

Backstory?

Use as little as possible, then cut it in half.

Readers need remarkably little of Our Story So Far.

maestrowork · Mar 13, 2007

For me, there's no formula, but a technique to integrate the back stories into the main plot as seamless and non-instrusive as possible, and I try to only supply back stories if the readers need to know and if the back stories enhances their understanding or enjoyment (if it actually advances the plot or develop the characters). Techniques include using dialogue, silence (mini-summaries), scene transitions, introspection, suspense, etc.

Jamesaritchie · Mar 13, 2007

Backstory

I don't even think about back story. I don't even know the back story. I don't want to know the back story. When I come to a spot in the writing that seems to need back story, back story appears because of something that happens in the story, and it goes in.

If the book makes sense without back story, don't put it in. If it doesn't make sense without a lot of back story, you're probably telling the wrong story.

Bourbon Street · Mar 13, 2007

As PeeDee said, if it's not absolutely relevant to advancing the story, it should go. And it's tough for backstory to advance anything, since it's all, by definition, in the past.

I also like to give my backstory (which is always way too much in the first draft) the 'readability' test: put it in, then read it. Does it slow things down? Interupt the action? Not advance a critical plot point? Bore the heck out of me? Then it must be cut.

If the info really is critical to plot/character, try moving it deeper into the story, long past where you've hooked the reader and at a point where they care about the characters and would thus care about the backstory. Always try to avoid info dumps in the first 50 pgs - for obvious reasons.

PeeDee · Mar 13, 2007

1) Everyone has a life story.

2) Most of it isn't very interesting.

3) Even if it is interesting, it isn't, because it's already happened.

Backstory: What to Use, What Not to Use

IThinkICan29

Garpy

keyboard monkey

scribbler1382

Write For You, Edit For The Reader

swvaughn

adrift

Maprilynne

Author Waiting in the Wings

swvaughn

adrift

IrishScribbler

weatherfield

kdnxdr

One of the most important people in the world

AllieB

scribbler1382

Write For You, Edit For The Reader

jonereb

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

scribbler1382

Write For You, Edit For The Reader

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

Elodie-Caroline

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

Elodie-Caroline

IThinkICan29

Elodie-Caroline

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray

Jamesaritchie

Bourbon Street

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?