Q: There’s some background information I need to include so my narrative makes more sense. How can I do that without breaking the flow of the story?
A: Many writers struggle with blending in historical context and a who’s who of key characters from the past whose influence has led up to their protagonist’s current dilemma — and how to do it seamlessly, without creating confusion or burdening the reader with too many details.
They grapple with how to work in the immigrant ancestors. Or how to explain about the bra-burning grandma or the parent with no boundaries. Or the moody kindergarten teacher. Or the sadistic vocal coach. Or the tragic first lover who drank himself to oblivion.
Scroll down for a list of six suggested technical solutions.
What the reader needs to know
Every story has to start somewhere in time and space. But what came before?
There’s so much stuff the reader needs to know! How can a writer weave in the backstory details that are essential to understanding the story?
All authors of narrative fiction and non-fiction deal with these questions — whether they’re writing an adult literary novel, young adult or middle grade fiction, fantasy, sci-fi fantasy, romance, or narrative nonfiction like a memoir, history, or other complex true story.
Successful writers experiment with different technical solutions
There’s no one solution or formula.
Every rule you hear about can be, and often is, broken. Here are some of the options that make good storytelling so interesting but hard to achieve.
6 backstory techniques
1. Start in the past
Begin with a summary of the historical background as a prologue to the present time.
One example of this is the first chapter of A Tale of Two Cities, in which Charles Dickens famously begins “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” and proceeds majestically to portray the Kings and Queens of England and France, and describe the Norwegian wood that would be eventually be made into the guillotine that decapitates Sidney Carton, the book’s hero.
But such prologue material doesn’t always work.
In the original version of The Great Gatsby, for example, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a lengthy biography of the title character. His editor Maxwell Perkins suggested he delete this slow beginning, which Fitzgerald did. He later rewrote the text as the excellent short story Absolution.
As in that case, a danger of this technique is producing too many pages with more information than a reader can possibly remember. So if you try this technique, keep it short.
2. Start in the present, then flashback in time
Begin with a dramatic moment in the here-and-now in chapter one. Then in chapter two, jump back to an equally compelling moment that took place in the past. This can be effective but again, the danger is in getting trapped in too much explanation.
Even more problematic is a flashback within the flashback, something I see frequently. A double-whammy like that can leave readers scratching their heads in bewilderment.
3. Go back and forth in time
Here’s an example of how to structure a narrative around shifts in time: Chapter one takes place in the present. Then chapter two takes place in the past. Chapter three is back in the present, four in the past, and so forth, creating parallel tracks.
I worked with author Katherine Neville on her bestselling novel The Eight, a great example of two apparently separate plots that meet ingeniously in a surprise ending.
But Katherine’s book was an exception, and this structure can become tedious if not executed brilliantly.
4. Insert memories
In a common but tricky technique, the heroine may think to herself, “She promised me that necklace, I’m sure of it…”
Or a memory is dropped into the dialogue. The protagonist may say to another character: “Listen, David, I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this, but…”
This can work, but the writer must take special care, because it can also become clumsy and intrusive.
5. Shift perspective
In Moby Dick, Herman Melville starts with an “I” narrator Ishmael, but later shifts the point of view to a third person narrator, then moves occasionally to Ahab himself, then back again at the end to Ishmael.
If done skillfully and with discretion, shifting voices can work, but in general I don’t recommend “head hopping” from character to character in order to fit in backstory information.
6. Include footnotes
In The Kiss of the Spider Woman, Manuel Puig includes dozens of footnotes that analyze psychoanalytic theory relating to the characters, and other fictional footnotes that expand and explain the story.
Similarly, in his monumental novel Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace includes more than 400 endnotes to break up the linear chronology and to supplement and clarify the core text.
This is a very special technique and difficult to pull off, needless to say, but has absolutely worked for great literary writers and provides a splendid model for all.
Struggling with this? You’re in good company
If you’re struggling with the backstory blues, you’re in good company. Remember different strategies have worked for different writers, each with their own special strengths.
For example, my esteemed friend Tom Robbins frequently jumps around in time with impunity in many of his wonderful novels, including Skinny Legs and Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates.
Also, Leo Tolstoy wrote many versions of War and Peace, each of which kept moving further back in time. He ultimately decided to start at an even earlier point in time, Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812, which included what he felt was the necessary historical context.
How an editor works with a writer to resolve backstory problems
The issue of how to best integrate backstory details emerges frequently in my own work as a developmental editor. Here are a couple of recent examples.
Stitching in a family secret
In one case, an author and I replaced a 14-page prologue with three less repetitious and more powerful internal memories and one passage of quoted dialogue that conveyed a family secret, hidden for years, then suddenly revealed in present time.
Adding a flashback chapter
For another book, the writer and I identified a crucial past moment in the heroine’s coming of age, then developed it fully with dramatic action as the second chapter of the book. We didn’t need to resort to another flashback for the rest of the story.
What has worked for you?
I look forward to hearing from you with reports of your own backstory solutions. What have you found especially challenging?
Have you managed to avoid the dreaded information dump? Please pass along any suggestions to fellow writers!
Many thanks, extremely helpful tips as I try to complete my memoir.
Alan, I just found your blog through Nathan Bransford’s website, and it’s wonderful. Thank you for your great posts!
As for backstory, I really enjoy incorporating it into the story as a mystery of sorts for the characters to uncover. I love books that are set against some sort of gripping character histories that become integral to the “present day” plot of the novel. Think Lily and James Potter and Voldemort’s stories in “Harry Potter” — J.K. Rowling told decades worth of backstory in her seven books, all while narrating a present day adventure with its own amazing characters, settings, and mysteries. I think her books are a stunning example of how to weave in backstory.
I’m not ashamed to emulate this style when I can! Also, on top of inserting obvious backstory dialogue/”family letters”/mysteries, I like to narrate a snippet of backstory (a memory of the character I am following, perhaps), and link it with some type of emotional beat or thought to the character’s present. This way, it doesn’t feel as if the backstory is serving the sole purpose of giving information; it actually applies to the character’s current emotional state/situation. This can obviously become overkill if done too often, but it helps make it less jarring.
Thanks for this post, Alan. I am struggling with this right now – I first wrote the backstory of my memoir as several chapters, then as a short summary within the first chapter, then as a scene within the first chapter – and now I am considering weaving it into the first several chapters through details discovered through memories and conversations. I guess the best solution is to play around with the various techniques you mentioned and see what works best for your story. Like you said, there is no one right answer.
Alan, your graphics are almost as clever as your advice. Kudos. And is your designer available for rent or hire?
-Meredith
I’m still trying to wrap myself around the backstory thing. What comes up for me first is one BIG main question: Is it necessary for the main story?
If it isn’t, its just a writing tool and I don’t need it in the main story.
If it is, then it has to go in, but where? So my next question is: Will the reader spend time being confused if I drop it in in increments or later? If so, it needs to go first in a prologue
(unless it holds clues to a mystery to be solved, but that too is dangerous as it might leave the reader floundering around too long.)
But if it just needs to bring the reader enough information to be able to GO with the main story, then my hope is: to get it out in the least distracting manner.
If it can be snipped down, I prefer prolouge to show rather than tell. If it would be too long, I tell and get it over with and cross my fingers that the reader will still find it interesting and fun enough to follow it to the beginning of the main story.
Most important, I think (and hope) is to get ON with the main story and let the plot lead it down the road.
I tend to use dialogue and some memories to do backstory. I love prologues myself, but I’ve heard most editors (and reviewers) hate them so I have avoided them. And I parse out the backstory. It’s a teaser then, making the reader want more – giving little ah-ha moments. (or so she thought, but ever since the death of her beloved parakeet, she had trouble sleeping nights). :)
Ways to insert backstory.
Alan, thank you for all you do. You are inspirational always, but you really got me involved with this topic …
The main “technique” to keep in mind is how people communicate. Look at your own experience. There is only one you, but you gather information from many sources, to paint your internal picture of the world. How do you discover the backstory of life in general?
That is how your characters or narrator discover the story too. Part of your job as God — er, the writer — is to arrange for them to blab everything they know, at convenient times.
Overheard conversations. Gossip. Chance encounters. Stories other people tell, either gratuitously or on request. Wrong numbers. Old newspaper clippings. Letters left behind. Photos in scrapbooks. All can be used as jogs for various characters’ (usually partial) revelations of the big picture.
Any character who knows something important about the plot can fill it in.
Even if you are a third person totally omniscient narrator, you can still let the characters tell each other the backstories, and objects such as photos or clippings are “props” you can use to jog a character’s memory, or “cause” one character’s communication of old news to another.
To make it seamless requires mainly that the CHARACTERS tell the story as much as possible. Their reasons for yakking their heads off are your excuses for letting them do it.
No backstory needs to come out all at once. In fact, it’s more dramatic to dribble and drab it. This is a huge technique good writers use to sneak backstory into a work of fiction: GETTING the backstory is often part of the plot!
All you need is a pretext or motive for any character to reveal some part of the backstory. A yakkety old busybody will do.
I once wrote a story that needed so much backstory, I realized I was writing a different book.
Finally, KNOW the backstory. So what if you spend all day writing a 50 page backstory that doesn’t fit? At least you don’t have writer’s block, right? You can spend a lot of craftmanship time later, working it all in … IF YOU WROTE IT.
Nobody writes a book from start to finish. Get over it. Write the scenes, the dialogue snippets, those little bits you’re itching to stick into a book. Out of order, if necessary. Don’t worry where they go, just get them on paper first. The book will materialize, believe me.
Alan,
I have weaved a backstory into the middle of most of my chapters, so the flow is present- past-present for each chapter. Transitioning into the backstory was not as difficult as coming out of it. I used some of your approaches listed: #2, #3 and a sprinkling of #4 (Insert Memories). Here are some of my transitions:
– There was a time in my life when I was a lot more righteous and would never have apologized for a mistake that wasn’t mine. … BACKSTORY… I never forgot the lesson of that day.
– The only house that came close to being so terrible was the gang-riddled apartment complex we lived in when I was in second grade. BACKSTORY… Thirty years later not much has changed. Mom still moves every year, I still don’t cry, and Randi still protects me.
– Aunt Sally, was a kind, smart, wonderful woman. The story I was told as a young girl was… BACKSTORY… She was strange and wonderful and I miss her so much.
David and Randi chime in as we begin to tell stories of the Mopsie we remember. We recall…BACSTORY… Mom’s friend interrupts our frenzy of memories
I struggled to come back to the future in each chapter. Some came naturally, and others still need work. Weaving the past into my dialogue was the most difficult and only really worked once for me.
Thank you so much for your post. It will help me rework some of my transitions.
-Buffi
http://www.imbuffi.com/
Thank you for another excellent post.
One technique I’ve tried involved the main character discovering letters written by her mother and stashed in odd places throughout the MC’s childhood home. The MC, also power of attorney for her mother, finds these letters while cleaning out her mother’s estate and preparing to sell it so she can afford the medical care her mother needs. During the story, the reader sort of looks over the shoulder of the MC and reads those letters, thereby receiving backstory in small chunks that build up to the final reveal.
I don’t have a whole bunch of backstory in my ms, so I’ve been able to include it in snippits of dialogue and internal narration.
Footnotes work great as way to insert humerous backstory. Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett made good use of that in Good Omens.
A friend recently recommended the approach John Le Carré used to introduce George Smiley. It couldn’t be more straightforward: chapter one of “Call For the Dead” is entitled “A Brief History of George Smiley.”
Importantly, she pointed out, it is indeed brief.
Hi Dan –
Welcome! You can subscribe to the blog by clicking on the big orange RSS button, up in the righthand corner by the Search box. That should do it.
And if there are subjects you’re particularly interested in, like other ‘Ask the Editor’ or ‘Craft of Writing’ posts, you can find them by clicking on the respective “Blog Categories” in the right sidebar.
– Alan
Great post! I am an aspiring writer and I loved it. You should have a place where I can subscribe to your blog, I’d be very interested in reading more!