Tips for How to Present Backstory
Even if you don't present backstory in the first chapter of a novel, you have to present at some time in the book. But there are a few tricks you can use to make that backstory as emotionally compelling as possible. I wrote this article, which originally appeared on Suite101. Tips for How to Present Backstory Make a Character’s Past History Compelling Here are some good tricks to use when writing backstory in a novel so that the reader is intrigued by the information. The key to presenting backstory in a way that is interesting to a reader boils down to one piece of advice: Make the reader want to know the information. As a reader gets to know the characters and become interested in them, she will naturally want to know more about them. But even beyond this natural interest, up the stakes. Make the past important to the reader because it ties together mysterious threads of the current action. Dole Out Backstory in Bits and Pieces When information is given out slowly,