Backstory is critical to your characters’ motivations, choices, and growth over the course of your novel. But it can be a struggle creating circumstances that are both challenging and plausible, and harder to know when to reveal these secrets. In an article for Writer’s Digest, Swan Huntley suggests five reasons your characters should hide secrets from their past and when it’s time to talk about them.
- Suspense. “If a character’s past is mysterious, then along with the suspense of the present drama unfolding in your novel, you have the added bonus layer of the suspense that arises from slowly eking out information about who your character was in the time before we encounter them,” Huntley writes. “Ideally, whatever information you’re withholding about your character’s past comes to light at a moment when it is most relevant, i.e., when it ties into a decision the character is making in the present action of the story.”
- Surprise. “As an alternative to building tension by slowly revealing aspects of your character’s past over the course of your novel, you could hide the character’s entire past until the very end and totally surprise readers,” Huntley writes.
- Avoid info dumps. No one wants to read your journal entries about your characters. “What readers care about is the present action of the story,” Huntley writes. “So, even if your character isn’t covertly hiding the past, you, the author, probably want to hide it for the simple reason that it won’t be entertaining if it’s dumped at the start.”
- Hiding the past is fun. “Figuring out when to drop bits of information about a character’s past in a way that heightens tension most effectively is just fun,” she says.
- Denial is a coping mechanism. “The reason why a character might hide the past from the reader is because they are also hiding it from themselves,” Huntley explains. “They are in denial.” When the character accepts their past, the reader gets a pleasant emotional payoff as well.
