Backstory and How To Use It Effectively

Once backstory is defined, you must decide how to use it in your story for greatest effect. One of the biggest mistakes newer authors make is to think that the reader must know all of the backstory up front. This is not true. Backstory is used by the author to understand the character’s motivation, and information is revealed to the reader only when it is necessary and only in small segments as to not take away from the forward thrust of the novel.

Backstory is used most effectively to create conflict. So this is the author’s first concern. How can the needs and goals of one character be played off the needs and goals of another. Whether suspense, romance, mainstream or women’s fiction, conflict is what hold’s the reader’s attention and what moves the story forward. It’s the driving force of a story.

When you begin to create these needs and goals drawn from backstory motivation, look into other key characters’ pasts and see how their needs and goals can butt heads to create tension. In writing romance, I make sure that the hero and heroine have some opposing needs and personality traits that help to create tension. Though I’ll cover conflict in more detail in later blogs, the kinds of things I do is this:

both characters can be competitive – which automatically creates tension
both characters can want the same goal such as a job promotion
both characters jobs depend on where they live so have them live in different areas or states

Opposites that create tension:
neat and organized vs. messy and laid back
sexual discretion vs. promiscuous
active/go-getter vs. laid-back
career driven vs. career contentment

You get the point. Characters have flaws and personality traits that clash, and these external problems can create story tension. Later, when I talk more about conflict, we’ll look at the deeper types of conflict – the internal as well as external.

The key factor with backstory is what I said earlier, use it with discretion. Some writers try to avoid any backstory in the first 30 to 50 pages of their novels. This means a writer must find ways to present problems and make them realistic without laying out the past issues in the characters lives. The reason for this is backstory is passive. It’s often told in introspection (hopefully not author instruction) and therefore it is telling rather than showing.

Even in dialogue when backstory issues can be discussed, the delivery is basically passive, although through dialogue the author can show the emotional impact of the past on a character. Telling it in dialogue can be more effective than through introspection. Using flashbacks is not advised for a new authors since they are difficult to write and can also jerk the reader from the main story and often can confuse them.

With large blocks of backstory , it is likely you’ll provide more information than the reader needs to know. Readers aren’t dumb, and they like to discover things – or even guess at uncovered pieces of information – as they read. They have the voila moment, and this curiosity is what drives them through the story making it a page-turner. By providing too much information can block the opportunity to surprise the reader.

Hints and foreshadowing, based on the past, is a technique to make your work a page-turner. I use this technique to hint at backstory without providing too much information. For example:

Rachel cringed when Jake had called her pure and sweet. If he only knew the truth. . .
Or
Tom dug the spade into the ground, sweat pouring from his brow as his past shrouded him like a black cloud. He tossed the shovel as far as he could, wishing he could do the same with his horrifying memories.

I hope you can see that both of these examples show how backstory can be revealed first through foreshadowing or hinting at problems without revealing the details. These passages make readers curious and they want to know more. This is an excellent technique that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Another point is that readers care more about characters as they come to know them. A tragic incident in a character’s life will have a much greater impact on the reader once the character has established a home in the reader’s heart.
Remember this about backstory:

Backstory is passive; a compelling novel is active.
Backstory is telling not showing.
Avoid backstory in the first 20 to 50 pages of your novel.
Feed backstory in as needed and only in small pieces.
Restrained use of backstory can create more reader interest and results in a page-turner
Restraining backstory allows readers to get to know the characters more fully
Foreshadowing and hints rather than revealing backstory creates a hook.
Readers aren’t dumb. They want the opportunity to figure things out for themselves.