BACKSTORY DUMPS & TOP-HEAVY WRITERS

No, this not a self-help blog for big-chested writers. So you ask, what in the world could one thing have to do with the other? Consider dividing your manuscript into thirds. Top (beginning) Middle (duh) Bottom (ending). If you’ve got too much information or backstory dump in the beginning then your novel will be top heavy. Admit it, would you have been as curious about this blog if the title had been Backstory Dumps and Beginning Heavy Writers. I think not.

Backstory is everything that has happened to your major players from birth. Whoa. If you’re thinking that’s a lot of stuff. You’d be right. These are the incidents, accidents and important events that have happened to your characters. These are the things that have shaped their world views not to mention their expectations of the people around them. Quite simply, these are the things that have made them who they are. It provides their motivation or reasoning as to why they act and react the way they do.

Do we need backstory? Absolutely. But, we do not need to know that the reason Hero-To-Die-For doesn’t date is because he was stood up for the prom on the same night that his mother left his father and his big brother ran off with the lady who runs the dry cleaners. Or that Heroine Extraordinaire has commitment issues because she was left standing at the altar because her finance decided he was gay and wanted to spend the rest of his life in Memphis with his tabby cat named Elvis and a struggling piano player who just so happens to be losing his hair. These events can be included later, but only eluded to at the beginning.

For example, this latest manuscript I’m working on had the heroine being fired from her dream job in the first chapter and then her leaving town in the second chapter where she gets arrested. I wrote it, liked it and then decided to scrap it for a stronger more exciting beginning where she gets arrested right off the bat. Her internal thoughts hint at her woes, but that’s it. A brief mention on page 3—for now. I will, of course, go back and fill the reader in on the details later on, but for now, I hope it leaves the reader wondering what happened to place her in the bank parking lot, in a borrowed Lexus, with a bottle of wine and a loaded gun resting on her chest.

Make no mistake that in order to write believable characters you have to know their backstory top to bottom and from the inside out. You just don’t need to squeeze it all in the first chapter. Spread out the good stuff. Keep your readers wondering why and they’ll keep reading to find out.

Hugs,
Reese