More Tips for How to Present Backstory
This article originally appeared on Suite101. Additional Tricks to Make a Character’s Past History Compelling Here are some more subtle ways to present exposition without obviously telling the reader. The previous article on backstory mentioned this: 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. Aside from the points in that article, there are also some other more subtle ways to accomplish this. Connect Information to Action This is a case of using both "showing" and "telling" in order to present backstory. The writer can first "show," in action, a character's personality, trait, or proclivity. For example, show Joe's strange aversion to the barn in a few short paragraphs of action and dialogue. This action will trigger an emotional reaction in the reader. Make the reader feel Joe's fear and dread as he stares into th