In a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog, Tiffany Yates Martin offers advice for skillfully weaving character backstory into your novel. “Backstory brings characters to life, gives them depth and dimension, and draws readers in,” she says. “Without it characters may feel opaque or flat, their actions random or unmotivated. But too much backstory can dilute and derail your actual story.”
Backstory doesn’t always require lengthy paragraphs; it can be as simple as a snide remark between characters or a disappointed glare. Backstory fails when its loaded at the front of your story or dumped into a lengthy flashback. At worst, backstory is unnecessary or poorly developed. Yates Martin offers some advice for doing it well:
- Ask the Watergate question. What do readers need to know and when do they need to know it? “Successfully incorporating backstory means using it only as needed for readers to fully understand or feel invested in character or story actions—and only as much or as little as is required in that moment,” Yates Martin says. “Create depth and texture little by little, like individual brushstrokes in an Impressionist painting rather than big glops of monochromatic color.”
- Make it relevant. Whatever backstory you share should be directly related to what’s happening in the present and should illuminate something essential about the character or plot. “Context, memory, and flashback—the three main forms of backstory—feel most organic when readers can see what sparks the association in the present moment, how that backstory ties into what’s happening in the main story, and how it influences the character in the current story, whether by driving them to take a certain action, make a specific decision, evince a certain behavior, or gain some new understanding of a situation,” Yates Martin explains.
- Be specific. “Vague, generic backstory yields vague, generalized stories and characters,” she adds. “The more concrete, granular, and specific your backstory is, the more believable and dimensional it feels.”
- Weave backstory smoothly. “One good test is this: If the backstory, no matter how large or small, draws attention to itself more than it illuminates something in the present moment, you’re likely hanging a lantern on it,” Yates Martin writes. “Focus on the main story’s forward momentum, and use backstory as the seasoning that makes the stew.”
