From the Reading Chair

From the Reading Chair: The backstory balancing act

In a taster of her workshop at Byron Writers Festival this year, local editor Laurel Cohn discusses the importance of getting character backstory right, whether you are writing fiction or non-fiction.

Have you ever been stuck at an event with a stranger who wants to tell you, unprompted, all about themselves? Even if that person looked interesting from afar, they can quickly become boring. Too much backstory! The same is true with characters on the page. Readers don’t need to be regaled with great slabs of personal history about characters in order to care about them, or in order to understand what’s happening. And it’s not just characters, but also settings, both physical and social; while a sense of place is needed so that your characters aren’t interacting in a vacuum, particularly in speculative fiction genres where world-building is key, there is a point where too much information is distracting.

The need to know In an attempt to set up the story, in time and place as well as character and key event, often a writer will get bogged down in the backstory, particularly in the opening chapters. And let me be specific – particularly in chapter two after a dramatic event in chapter one. It’s almost as if the writer is saying to the reader, ‘I’ve started with something to grab your attention, but hang on a minute, let me pause to fill you in.’ I understand why writers do this. It is vital they are intimately familiar with the history of their characters and sometimes also of the locations where the action takes place. The writer needs to know this backstory in order to create compelling and believable characters with plausible motivations, as well as three-dimensional settings. However, the reader doesn’t need to know that level of detail to follow the story, to care about the characters, or to be curious about what happens next. On the flip side, sometimes writers don’t put in enough backstory, leaving the reader unclear about characters’ motivations, their frame of mind in different scenarios and the contexts that shape their decision-making. This can impede a reader’s ability to engage with the characters, as actions, demeanour and thoughts aren’t tied to a delineated sense of a whole character. It can be hard to empathise with or care about a character you only meet on the surface. It’s a balancing act – you need a certain amount of backstory for a reader to engage and identify with characters and places, but need to steer clear of what are called ‘info dumps’, chunks of information that slow the pace or stall the narrative. Whether you are writing fiction or narrative non-fiction such as memoir, you need to be able to distinguish between the information the reader must know in order to follow your story thread at that moment, and all those other fascinating things that you, the writer, know about the characters and places, that can be omitted.

Revealing and concealing backstory Much can be revealed about the past through the actions and interactions of characters in the present and through careful narration and description. We pay attention not only to who is speaking but also to what is said, the way it is said and why. We pay attention to what a person looks like, how they move, how they respond to what’s happening around them. And we pay attention to the setting, especially those that contain personal objects of some sort. I bet I’m not the only one who finds themselves perusing the bookshelves of someone I’m visiting for the first time to help me get a sense of who this person is. These details give us clues not only about that person’s present and character, but also about their past. Same in a book, which is why dialogue, action and description of settings are such important ways of revealing character, and revealing backstory. Think in terms of inserting snippets of backstory in context. Let the reader discover who the characters are over time, much like we get to know people in real life. Let the context – the scene, the moment in the plotline – help determine what snippet of backstory is revealed. The choices you make about what the reader knows direct their emotional response to the characters. You can choose to conceal the backstory that has shaped your characters’ motivations for dramatic eff ect, manipulating the way the reader sees the characters on the page. What the reader knows and doesn’t know about the backstory can drive the tension and narrative momentum. Sometimes, revealing key backstory elements only near the end of a narrative can amplify the power of the whole story.

Mastering the balancing act A good way to start focusing on the backstory balancing act is to read the work of your favourite writers and notice how they carefully place backstory snippets, how they drip-feed information to keep the reader curious. What specific details do they reveal about their characters and places? When? How? Why at that moment? It can take many draft s to get backstory right. You may start with too much, or you may start with too little. You may realise that you need to adjust a character’s backstory to amplify the themes you are exploring or to increase the dramatic tension in places. The more awareness you bring to your use of backstory, the more eff ective it will be. It takes practice.

Laurel Cohn is a developmental book editor passionate about communication and the power of stories in our about communication and the power of stories in our lives. She has been helping writers prepare their work for lives. She has been helping writers prepare their work for publication since the mid-1980s, and is a popular workshop publication since the mid-1980s, and is a popular workshop presenter. She has a PhD in literary and cultural studies. presenter. She has a PhD in literary and cultural studies. Laurel will hold a workshop, Balancing Backstory, as part of Laurel will hold a workshop, Balancing Backstory, as part of Byron Writers Festival 2021, for more information see page 25 Byron Writers Festival 2021, for more information see page 25 or visit byronwritersfestival.com/festival-workshops/or visit byronwritersfestival.com/festival-workshops/