Boring Backstory

Pretty much all first time authors find themselves writing pages and pages of backstory and sticking it at the start of their novel. Completely unaware that they're boring the pants off their readers. They give too much information and too much history to their stories, and they put it in the wrong place.

We've all done it at some point or another, and if you can't see it, it's very hard to remove it. So here are some tips on spotting backstory and removing it.

What is backstory?

It's a large lump of story that's talking about the past, thinking about the past, dreaming about the past, explaining a storyline, explaining a world. It's you trying to tell your readers about your character and their story. And the key word there is tell.

If you tell a reader about anything, it's boring for them. They want action. They want to be in the story, not outside of it listening to you.

Ever heard someone say don't tell, show? Well that's the difference. If you tell a reader about an event, it's far more boring for them than you showing them the event. From the readers point of view, if you show them the event, they are in the scene, they can see the explosions, smell the flowers and feel the emotions. If you tell them about the explosions, flowers or emotions, they are taken out of the story and put in a boring white room with someone talking to them. It's jarring and pulls them out of your story, and it's pretty dull.

Another example: Say you have a start of your novel where the main character's father dies. It's your first chapter. You have the main character thinking about their father and how he died. Maybe he left them a letter in his will and your main character is reading it. That's backstory!

You should have the first chapter start in the hospital with the main character's father on his death bed trying to tell your main character his dying words. It's far more exciting, and your reader can feel the emotions. They're in the room with your character. They can experience the story first hand. They're pulled into your story from the first line and hooked. How are a few thoughts and a letter going to compete with that?

So that is why backstory is often cut, because it's jarring or boring. It's not the only reason, but it's one of the main ones.

Read your first few chapters. See if you have backstory in there or any kind of info-dump. Dumping information is another backstory problem: trying to force information into your story unnaturally. Let it come out naturally. Let your characters actions or events explain the story. It'll read much better, and people will love your book for the extra effort you put into it.

Fixing Backstory Issues

There are many different ways to remove backstory. One is to make the backstory into an event. Instead of telling readers about an event or moment, let them experience it. In most cases this is the best way to edit out backstory. But it's not always possible, so other ways of working with back story are moving it. Move it to somewhere later in your novel, where it will fit in naturally. Another option is to minimise it. Make it shorter,and zip through it quickly so your reader won't get bored.

In some cases backstory can become a prologue, although use these carefully—there's nothing worse than a misused prologue! Another place that backstory sometimes fits is in a glossary. Especially in fantasy and science fiction novels where the world is so unique that you feel the need to explain everything. You don't have to tell it all in the novel. Some elements can be moved to a prologue or glossary in these cases.

And the final solution is the final solution. Kill it. If you can't change it, move it or minimise it. Your only option is to delete it. Yes we know it's painful. But if your story starts on chapter three, chapter one and two have to go. Where they go is up to you and depends largely on your story. But if you want to write a bestseller, you don't want any backstory in it.

Author: Claire Chilton