What is your Backstory?
As part of the series on the three Act structure, this post is about the second section of Act one - the backstory. The backstory or history of the characters is one of the most difficult for the author to incorporate into the story. After all, the reader doesn't want to start with the day the character was born and read his/her life story to get to the action. The reader wants to meet the character in bits and pieces, to learn why the character acts the way he/she does in a subtle way.
Let's take for example a mystery where the protagonist is afraid of heights. The author could slide the backstory in when the character has reason to climb a ladder. Perhaps she has flashbacks to the time when her favorite pet was stuck in a tree and when she climbed up to rescue it, she fell and broke her legs. That might make her think twice about being high off the ground.
The author might simply state that our character is afraid of heights but a better method would be to use flashback to slide in the history. Another way would be to use dialog. Here's an example:
Protagonist: Looking up the ladder seemed to stretch the length of a football field. She wiped her sweaty palms on the sides of her jeans and with shaking hands, grasps the side.
Friend: "Come on Mary, you can do this. Try not to think about the time when you fell and broke your legs trying to rescue Fluffy from the tree."
Backstory slipped into the dialogue without the reader having to review years of childhood in order to know why the first character's hands were sweaty. Better option, right?
Pay attention to where and when the author sneaks in the characters backstories when you read your next book.
Happy trails,
Leslie
Visit my website
Let's take for example a mystery where the protagonist is afraid of heights. The author could slide the backstory in when the character has reason to climb a ladder. Perhaps she has flashbacks to the time when her favorite pet was stuck in a tree and when she climbed up to rescue it, she fell and broke her legs. That might make her think twice about being high off the ground.
The author might simply state that our character is afraid of heights but a better method would be to use flashback to slide in the history. Another way would be to use dialog. Here's an example:
Protagonist: Looking up the ladder seemed to stretch the length of a football field. She wiped her sweaty palms on the sides of her jeans and with shaking hands, grasps the side.
Friend: "Come on Mary, you can do this. Try not to think about the time when you fell and broke your legs trying to rescue Fluffy from the tree."
Backstory slipped into the dialogue without the reader having to review years of childhood in order to know why the first character's hands were sweaty. Better option, right?
Pay attention to where and when the author sneaks in the characters backstories when you read your next book.
Happy trails,
Leslie
Visit my website
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