I will no longer be updating this guide. I'm leaving it up in case it will continue to be helpful to anyone in the future.
People have asked me writing tips, Wattpad tips, and whatever. This is some of that advice I give them. Keep in mind most of t...
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This really goes hand in hand with info dumps, often times backstories can be one in the same, but that's not always the case. Authors need to be careful because backstories are taking the story backwards. There is a reason they're called backstory. It stops the story from moving forward and can run the risk of stalling the story out. Backstory refers to the characters history, the reason they are the way they are. They help us to give a crap about the character (or hate them in the case of a villain) while establishing the events of the story itself.
A couple of the common ways of showing that backstory is through dialogue, the character tells another character their history, thereby telling us the reader. It can be info dumped in the first chapter or prologue. Or through the use of flashbacks. All three methods can become tiring to both a writer and a reader. Flashbacks can also become confusing to the reader as they won't know what point in time they are if you do it a lot.
I would say never put the backstory in the first chapter. There isn't much information that we need about the characters history that can't be delivered throughout the book. While I sometimes felt my rough draft of Freelander dragged on, I couldn't fathom putting the reason Josh's family moved a lot within the first chapter of meeting Josh.
The thing with readers is they sometimes enjoy trying to guess what's happening. You give them those nuggets of info that hint at the characters story, but don't tell them right away. Think of it like dangling a carrot in front of a rabbit. You don't want the rabbit to get it too soon, where's the fun in that? It might be cruel in the eyes of some, but it's building to something. Build that anticipation before the reveal. Then, when the backstory is finally shown, the reader will either be happy they figured it out, mad they didn't figure it out, or mad they did figure it out.
There are some writers who will argue all backstory needs to be cut. There's nothing inherently wrong with that idea, in my opinion. It ultimately boils down to you and your story. It's another case of you having to be honest with yourself.
So how do you present backstory without it being an info dump, without being a flashback every time, how is it done? Once again, ask yourself if it can be broken up. It might be important information, but is it important in that exact minute? Can you have part of it happen in one chapter and then finish in another? Do you have to flashback, or can a character tell the story themselves? Can the narrative reveal it?
In Freelander's rough draft, I did the dialogue method for my main backstory which is the Ewahs. I had paragraphs and paragraphs of Henry telling their story and how the Ewahs came to be where they were and how the baddie, Khail, came to be the baddie. While I didn't have a lot of people on Wattpad complain about that method I hated every last bit of it. I think it took two chapters to tell the history of the Ewahs and only a few paragraphs of description and other characters talking broke it up. I knew it was important because the reader, at that point, was just learning about what was different about the Ewahs, but I knew I also wanted to have something different. It felt like it dragged on to me.
