Backstory is something that can trip up a lot of new writers. Any advice you read on the topic will often have some incarnation of the following:
DO NOT INFODUMP
Avoid backstory in the first chapter
Don’t tell us the character’s life history
As a result many writers go too far in the other direction, where the reader knows nothing about the main character’s past or what led them to this point. This causes a few problems. For starters, it can make your character’s actions feel unmotivated or confusing. It can also make characters seem unsympathetic, especially if they have a big arc over the course of the story.
There’s a balance to be found. Too much backstory can bog down a story, but too little leaves the reader struggling to connect with the character. So how do you navigate the tricky water of character backstory? Let’s start at the beginning.
What is backstory? And what’s the purpose of it in storytelling?
Backstory is information, key events and important milestones in your characters life that happen BEFORE the story starts. It helps the reader build empathy for your character, it shapes the way your characters act and forms the basis of why they behave the way they do. Without it, your characters actions and decisions may feel hollow, contrived or unmotivated.
For example: my hero in Her Aussie Holiday has been lied to about some pretty important things in his past, including his partner having an affair with her best friend who she thought of “like a brother.” As such, he never takes people at face value. This causes him to build surface-level relationships and it takes him a long time to trust others.
Without knowing about his past the reader might think he was simply a shallow person.
What’s wrong with an infodump? Doesn’t this get the reader up to speed quickly?
In a word…it’s boring. Slabs of text talking about the past doesn’t move the story forward, and your reader wants to know what’s happening NOW. Too much backstory can affect the pace of your story and cause the reader to lose interest.
How should I use backstory?
I like to think of the story as the main meal and backstory as the seasoning. The story is the most important part, it’s why your readers picked up your book. Backstory enhances your characters and makes them more complex and 3D. But it’s important to remember that too much seasoning will ruin any dish.
There are a few things to consider when writing backstory:
1. Backstory doesn’t need to happen up front. You can sprinkle it through so the character is revealed and deepened as the story progresses. This is a great way to share the information that might have compiled your infodump in a way that doesn’t slow the pace of your book.
2. The reader is smart, you don’t need to beat them over the head with the same piece of information over and over. If you mention that the heroine had a bad relationship with her father you don’t need to repeat the exact same piece of information two chapters later, but you can build on it by providing more detail specifically where it relates to the story or a decision your characters has to make.
3. The reader doesn’t need to know everything. I often think a lot about my characters—what type of school did they go to? What grades did they get? How do they get along with their family? Do they have a pet? What were the important milestones in their life? How do they like to dress? What do they read? Not all of this information will make it into the story, but I like to know everything about a characters past because it helps me to write them more authentically. Sometimes backstory is something that will stay in your head or in your planning document. Only put the information into the story that needs to be there.
What about backstory and secondary characters?
It depends on the book. If you want to set up a secondary character to be the hero or heroine in a subsequent book you don’t necessary need to put their backstory into the current book – save it for their book! But you can absolute drop a little hint in about their past. Keep it mysterious so the reader will be curious about their story.
Remember, the plot and your characters are the main dish. Backstory is your salt and pepper. Everybody likes their seasoning a little different, so you may like more or less than the next writer. But don’t serve your readers a totally unseasoned dish.