Backstory in a first chapter

Seems fine. I write in my diary how I talk or think--sometimes recounting in present tense, sometimes in past. That example sentence you gave, though, doesn't really seem like a sentence somebody'd write in a diary.

can't say about agents, sorry.

Viola2007 said:

Agents and publishers don´t like to see it in first chapters,

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Says who? Depends how it's done. Remember - no rules!!

Why do you have to tell something about their past? Why not let that come out gradually in drips and drabs? When you meet someone new in real life do they tell you their life story? And if they do, don't your eyes glaze over and don't you start looking for the nearest exit? It's the same way in fiction. I don't need to know everything right at the start.

nevada said:

Why do you have to tell something about their past? Why not let that come out gradually in drips and drabs? When you meet someone new in real life do they tell you their life story? And if they do, don't your eyes glaze over and don't you start looking for the nearest exit? It's the same way in fiction. I don't need to know everything right at the start.

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But just think of all the paper you could save!

I must be a weirdo, but I write journal / diary entries roughly the same way I write fiction. I write down pivotal conversations and describe events action by action... at least, when there's something interesting going on my life. When my life is less story-worthy, I bring out the babble.

There are some readers who won't touch diary / journal novels, but I think there are many readers (myself included) who are willing to suspend their disbelief to read an epistolary novel. I'll accept that the "writer" has a near-photographic memory and has the time to write long journal entries about his / her life with dialogue, action, and a minimal amount of babblyness.

Re: backstory and flashbacks at the beginning. I believe it can be done. I'm beta reading a wonderful YA novel right now that begins with several flashbacks. They're pivotal events in the narrator's life, and the writer paces the flashbacks very quickly and fills them with tension. Personally, I'm glad the writer structured it this way rather than showing us the narrator's present-day life first and then going backwards to show the crucial events in her past. It would have been more jarring to get the reader involved in her present life and then jump backwards, effectively stalling the tension and taking the reader out of the story. With the flashbacks coming first, though, we don't even register that they're flashbacks; they're simply part of the linear storyline.

There's a different version of "what works" for every story, though. I'm sure most novelists rewrite their opening chapters many times before they've found what works.

if you are introducing a character, you have to tell something about his/her past.

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Not unless it's affecting a decision in the story now. The reader cares about now: what's happening now, what the character is thinking now, what the character is feeling now, what the character wants now, what the character's doing now.

You, the author, need to know the past, but the reader doesn't. Not until it's an issue for what's happening now, and the pov character is thinking about the past, and even then the reader only needs to know what the character thinks/feels about it and how it affects the present, not what actually happened.

JD

It's not totally off-limits, but the problem is that many newbie/aspiring/ writers think they have to give all the back history of the main characters and the conflict right at the start (believe me, I did). Most of the time, you don't have to. Focus on the immediate conflict that starts the whole story, and work in the backstory (this does not necessarily include flashbacks, by the way, though it can) in later chapters.

JanDarby said:

You, the author, need to know the past, but the reader doesn't. Not until it's an issue for what's happening now, and the pov character is thinking about the past, and even then the reader only needs to know what the character thinks/feels about it and how it affects the present, not what actually happened.

JD

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I agree with this. Backstory is only supposed to be known if it moves the story, if it is essential to the story telling. You can introduce the character in many ways, backstory is just one of those ways. Originally, I was going to tell Cursed Blood with just flashbacks but something stopped me. That story would have been boring because there's no action right now. By putting in a flashback here and there, I was able to show how bad it was for Donna and how much she wanted out of that life but couldn't because her curse prevented her own death but caused others. Those flashbacks also gave the readers an idea on how this woman really was, her personality then and now. I used everything in past tense but that is how I write. In journals, I use both depending on what I'm writing and when it happened.

Amber

Viola2007 said:

Agents and publishers don´t like to see it in first chapters, but if you are introducing a character, you have to tell something about his/her past. What is the exact definition of backstory? Flashbacks? Or anything that happened previous to the action taking place in that first chapter? What if the first chapter happens to be a diary entry? Then it´s bound to deal with previous events.
On the subject of diaries,…I wanted to include diary excerpts in my novel, but I found I was using a phony technique. I included too many dialogues, and my real journal does not. Then, what is the best tense to use for diary entries? I use past tense to describe events and present to tell how the events affect the diarist. For example:
“I never said a word to him. Throughout dinner, we remained immersed in uncomfortable silence, but then I’m usually pretty laconic. Why change now?”
Should I keep it all in the present tense to avoid confusion?
Sorry for all the questions but this place is such a well of wisdom. I have to take advantage of your knowledge.

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Readers read for story. Description isn't story. Flashbacks aren't story. Backstory, despite the presence of the word story, is not story.

Character is story. And action is character.

Introduce your characters doing what they do. By their actions, your readers will learn a great deal about them without you having to set aside blocks of prose informing them.

As for the journal entries, I don't think anyone would write things like "immersed in an uncomfortable silence" and "I'm usually pretty laconic" in a diary, at least no one I'd want to spend any significant time with would.

I have journal entries in my novel. They're clearly labeled and stand out from the rest of the book by the difference in POV as well as tonally. They're personal, conversational, and informal.

I don't know how one would journal in the present tense.

-Jason

Do it well and be consistent. There are obviously readers who'll read a diary style novel, and I'm sure they'll have no trouble getting used to having dialogue as part of each entry. But they'll notice if the first dialogue entry is on page 120 or if the style changes in other ways, so pick a great style and stick with it.

And best of luck,
kap

I think it's necessary to have a backstory and past with your characters when you first meet them. Especially with your main character. You gotta wonder why she walks on the other side of the street than her friends with her head bowed, her hands stuffed deep in her jean pockets, tears in her eyes. Why is she so sad? Why made her this way, and how? You gotta fall in love with the character. It's how you can capture what she feels, if you have ever felt the same. My main character I can relate to and that is how I am trying to create her in my thoughts.

k_obsessed said:

I think it's necessary to have a backstory and past with your characters when you first meet them. Especially with your main character. You gotta wonder why she walks on the other side of the street than her friends with her head bowed, her hands stuffed deep in her jean pockets, tears in her eyes.

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I tried to give one of my main characters some backstory in the beginning of my first novel, and I ended up writing an entire novel about her instead. Oops. In the end, I did get back to the original novel. Just a slight 80,000 word detour.

Yeah, I can see myself doing that with some characters I've created. . . but this time I think I will include a hero. What do you think? Could be a lot more fun to write!

k_obsessed said:

Yeah, I can see myself doing that with some characters I've created. . . but this time I think I will include a hero. What do you think? Could be a lot more fun to write!

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I don't know... I LOVE well-developed villains. I prefer my characters eccentric. Most run of the mill heroes put me to sleep.

Viola2007 said:

I have just found two entries in my diaries (one in Spanish, and one in English. One from 1980 and one from 1992) where I describe myself as a "verbose person who wishes to be more laconic" I like the word!
So sorry you don´t want to spend significant time with me.

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Not a problem.

-Jason

k_obsessed said:

I think it's necessary to have a backstory and past with your characters when you first meet them. Especially with your main character. You gotta wonder why she walks on the other side of the street than her friends with her head bowed, her hands stuffed deep in her jean pockets, tears in her eyes. Why is she so sad? Why made her this way, and how?

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Wondering why is what makes people turn pages.

-Jason

Viola2007 said:

Agents and publishers don´t like to see it in first chapters, but if you are introducing a character, you have to tell something about his/her past.

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Not necessarily. In Writing the Thriller, Andre Jute talks about having to cut out a pile of backstory to please his editor. At first he thought it would gut the book, since the backstory was a previous romance between two major characters.

Jute cut nonetheless, and was delighted to see that the absence of the backstory made all the interactions between the two electric, since their dialogue (written before cutting the backstory) clearly reveals there was something intense going on between them.

If you know the whole backstory, write the chapter as if it's a given (or write it with the BS, then cut the BS out), and see how it reads. If it still needs some explanation, give only as much as is absolutely necessary. But even then, have someone else, who isn't familiar with the story, read the chapter without the backstory, and see if they complain about not knowing what happened in the character's past.

James Cameron, in his notes to the director's cut of Terminator II, admits the studio (cut) version is superior to his original version, which was about ten minutes longer. All the cut scenes are expository backstory, to explain how the new terminator differs from the original, and how he can learn and grow from experience. On seeing the cut version, Cameron realized the backstory wasn't as important as he thought. His final comment, "It's a lesson in how little it takes to tell a story."

Azraelsbane said:

I don't know... I LOVE well-developed villains. I prefer my characters eccentric. Most run of the mill heroes put me to sleep.

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Do you also write romances??

Most of the manuscripts I've critted over the years have a bigger problem with getting "frontstory" into the first chapter.

caw

k_obsessed said:

Do you also write romances??

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I write mainstream fiction and fantasy, but I have a paranormal romance on the back burner.

Paranormal romance has to be a hard one to tackle. I'm having enough trouble with mine. Yet I have so many ideas running around in my head, I can't seem to get them on paper..

I agree with the comment about how people relate in real-life. IRL recently a person told me her very shocking past all at once, right up front. I tremble when I see her. I would much have preferred to get to know her as she is now, and find out how she got here a little bit at a time.

When I read, I hate backstory. I *love* when an author is patient enough to let me find out who these people are through their actions, what they say & do, finding out a bit about them here & there as it comes up. Otherwise I feel like I'm reading a Woody Allen script, all blather.

It is a challenge, but I think it separates okay fiction from good fiction in many cases. Fight it, tell the story, let us discover your people along the way. Let me get to know your character as we go along, so that when the book is over I feel like I didn't have enough time to know as much as I wanted to, and I have to guess about some things. If you tell me everything, I may get bored & close the book before the end. My IRL friend ... I feel like I want to close the book already, I just know too much too soon. It happens in fiction and IRL.