I’ve read a couple of novels lately that had
really good stories that were ruined by buckets and buckets of backstory that
were thrown on the reader right from the start.
They had opening chapters that could have been completely cut out with
nothing being lost from the story.
Basically they had chapters that should have stayed in the author’s
notebooks.
Twenty years ago I sat in a Creative Writing
class that I still carry with me. The
teacher showed us the beginning sequence to the movie Indiana Jones and the Raiders
of the Lost Ark. His lesson was on
foreshadowing (you find out who the good guy is, who the bad guy is, that it’s
a full blown action adventure, that the bad guy will do anything to kill the
good guy, and that Indiana is afraid of snakes) This part of the film can also be used as a
lesson in backstory.
Quick description of the opening of the
film…Indiana Jones has a fedora, leather jacket, leather bag, gun, and whip
that he uses in many ways. He goes in a
cave and narrowly gets through ancient traps to get an archeological treasure
and get out. Bad guy laughs at him and
takes the treasure, “Dr. Jones, again we see there is nothing you can possess
which I cannot take away.” Indiana gets
away in his friends plane that also has a large snake in it. “I hate snakes, Jacque, I hate em’”
As a viewer we don’t need to know where Indy
got the whip or hat. He’s afraid of
snakes. Is it going to change our
enjoyment of the film if we knew that he once fell into a box full of snakes
and since then has been terrified? Nope. Save that for the third movie.
In writing, a backstory is there more for the
author than the reader. The author needs
to know the why and how for whatever a character feels like or does. The reader just needs to know that it is what
it is. For instance, if you look at the
rest of my blog I am working on the backstory for a new suspense thriller. I can fill pages and pages with backstory
that the reader doesn’t need to know for the story at hand, or I can put little
stuff in here and there that tells you the same thing. I can write…
As Spencer lead the way into his back office
his eyes barely noticed his culinary diploma framed on the wall.
…or I can write…
After high school Spencer went across the
country to the Culinary Institute of Canada.
For two years he slaved in their kitchens and classrooms, as well as a
couple of restaurants around the area.
Upon graduating he apprenticed at this restaurant and that restaurant. About six years ago he came to be the Head
Chef at his father’s restaurant…blah blah blah onto the next Castle novel.
Backstory is there to enrich the actual
story. A novel is just a scene in the
character’s lives. You aren’t telling
the whole thing. In my first snip it I
didn’t even have to say Spencer was a chef at a restaurant, but I bet you were
thinking it. It was his office and there
was a culinary diploma, enough said. I
have a main character whose mother disappeared – not important. Not for this story anyway. I may explore it later if the characters
stick with me for another book or two, but for this story that I want to tell
the reader is only going to know that Spencer and his sister Chrys are foster
siblings. Other than that, the reader
doesn’t need to know much more. Little
bits and pieces thrown creatively into the story can tell wonders. Carefully put little bits of the backstory in
and you can add a whole lot of colour to your story without making it feel like
the reader just opened a stuffed closet and had a whole lot of crap fall out on
top of him.
Don't let your backstory ruin the story you are trying to tell.
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