# How do you reveal backstory?



## Kyle R (Apr 18, 2012)

Let's say some events took place before your actual story takes place. You consider these events pivotal, and as such, you decide your reader needs to be aware of them.

What are your preffered methods for revealing backstory?

- *Expository narration*, where the narrator summarizes past events in a telling form.

_"Long before the Great Wall was built, China was divided into seven warring districts..."- 

_- *Revealing Clues*, where things are placed in scenes for your characters to notice or react to, to hint at past events.

_On the cabinet was a photograph of Kevin smiling as a young woman kissed his cheek. The picture was wrinkled, faded, old. Michael stared at the photograph for a long while, absently touching the gold band on his ring finger.

- _*Revealing Dialogue*, where characters speak about past events to drop clues for the reader.

_"I've had enough of this, Kevin! You need to get help. Have you forgotten what happened in Brazil?"
"That has nothing to do with this."
"You killed that woman!"
"It was an accident."

- _*Flashback*, where the story jumps back in time to show a past event as it unfolded.

_Two months earlier, off the coast of Brazil, Kevin Porter had just stepped off his luxury yacht when he heard a woman scream.

---

_Or another method? Perhaps a combination? How do you reveal backstory in your writing?


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## CFFTB (Apr 18, 2012)

I'd most likely use narration and flashbacks. Mostly flashbacks because I think after too many times the expository narration would get in the way, and I remember that happening while reading but can't remember examples right now. But if the flashbacks are written well, and also spaced far enough apart in the story so as not to annoy the reader, the story will flow smoothly.

Maybe a brief injection into dialogue, but not so much that it looks like an info dump.

If it's mystery/suspense, absolutely clues.


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## alanmt (Apr 18, 2012)

magical musical instrument


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## Kyle R (Apr 18, 2012)

alanmt said:


> magical musical instrument



Like Fry's Holophone from Futurama? 

[video=youtube;cIYj9IJFhlg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIYj9IJFhlg[/video]


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## Gamer_2k4 (Apr 18, 2012)

I started my novel off with a page or so of narrative backstory, just to set the scene.  After that, I only touch on it briefly, exposing history through actions and speech where it's relevant.  Once, I had a character ramble on about herself after only being asked where she was from.  Once, I had a character enter a room with a piano and begin to play it absentmindedly (no other clue was given that he used to play).  Another time, a character was directly asked about her past, so she answered candidly.  However, as a whole, we don't know a lot about the characters before they were introduced.  We don't need to know a lot about them.  They're in the story now, and that's what matters.

Also, I never use flashbacks.  I don't like disrupting focus from the story like that, and it almost seems amateurish to just say, "Okay, now we're directly talking about the character's history.  Now we're not.  That was fun, wasn't it? Too bad there aren't any more elegant or graceful ways to do this..."


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## Jon M (Apr 18, 2012)

Revealing backstory is one element of prose writing that I still have to work on. It is a subtle art, and I think the manner in which it is told depends on the length of the story. With a novel, obviously, you can stretch out and work the history in in small doses. Out of the techniques you highlighted, I think the first, when done in huge chunks, is the absolute worst. It'd be like watching a movie and then having the director come in and pause the action and say, Listen. Here's a bit of history and the reason why this scene you were watching is important. Just hear me out a second, okay? We'll get back to the movie in no time.


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## Kyle R (Apr 18, 2012)

On the opposite extreme, I've read some authors who advise, "If the camera cannot see it, you cannot write it."

In other words, things like, "Adam worried he would be late," would fall into the category of "camera cannot see it", therefore it is telling, not showing, and should not be written.

but, "Adam looked at his watch and frowned," would be, to those authors, acceptable.

The same rules apparently apply to backstory.

I say "bah!", but then again, I am overly fond of telling.


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## Jon M (Apr 18, 2012)

I've heard it said somewhere that good description is _active_, meaning that the story is not slowed down by strings of adjectives and adverbs. It is description that is more verb oriented. This may be a useful way of thinking about how to include backstory. Make it _active_ to the story in some way. This usually translates to the protagonist stumbling upon a prop / part of the story world and then a quick reminisce. This is an okay method, though it can get easy to spot if used too often.

I think flashbacks get a bad rap. When they're done well, you hardly notice them. The narration slips into pluperfect, then some dialogue, and it feels like it's happening _now_. 



			
				Kyle said:
			
		

> On the opposite extreme, I've read some authors who advise, "If the camera cannot see it, you cannot write it."
> 
> In other words, things like, "Adam worried he would be late," would fall  into the category of "camera cannot see it", therefore it is telling,  not showing, and should not be written.


I don't like this method either. This is more a rule screenwriters live and die by. 

Whether these rules of telling apply to backstory, I'm not so sure. Telling can be fun, and quite enjoyable, and it can still feel profluent. And I think that's what most readers of fiction want, a (generally) forward moving story. Backstory can only ever be history, and so large chunks of this get in the way of this desire to move forward. 

So a solution, I guess, is to make backstory seem more active. I know that is horribly generic advice, but it's the only way I know to say it. I tried doing this with the most recent LM, to make the backstory seem like it is active, happening now. But like with your story, Kyle, the need for exposition is an entirely different beast. But wouldn't the same guideline help out? Instead of painting with broad strokes sometimes, try to individualize it, bring it to the level of the character. 

And, also, I think it is the combination of all of these techniques that will help expository writing feel more natural.


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## Bagit (Apr 18, 2012)

KyleColorado said:


> On the opposite extreme, I've read some authors who advise, "If the camera cannot see it, you cannot write it."



This is why a flashback w/character involvment works well in most cases. This is not to say other methods won't work though.


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## shadowwalker (Apr 18, 2012)

As with so many things in writing, I find it difficult to explain how I do this. I just do it. So, putting my thinking cap on, I would say I try to place bits of backstory where it would normally occur. In conversation, little things pop out based on what's already being discussed, or some event they're witnessing. A character finds himself in a tense situation and *flashback* - sometimes short, sometimes lengthy, depending on the pace of the story at the time. The character is driving to the old homestead, and sees people/places from his past - maybe relates short anecdotes about them to his passenger. And there's always introspection - although that needs to be handled carefully so it doesn't become the infamous infodump. But then that goes for any of this. Basically, regardless of what vehicle you use, it needs to blend in with the scene, not become a glaring billboard.

Don't know if that helps or not. :scratch:


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## Kyle R (Apr 19, 2012)

Jon M said:


> So a solution, I guess, is to make backstory seem more active. I know that is horribly generic advice, but it's the only way I know to say it. I tried doing this with the most recent LM, to make the backstory seem like it is active, happening now. But like with your story, Kyle, the need for exposition is an entirely different beast. But wouldn't the same guideline help out? Instead of painting with broad strokes sometimes, try to individualize it, bring it to the level of the character.
> 
> And, also, I think it is the combination of all of these techniques that will help expository writing feel more natural.



I agree with the combination of techniques approach.

Also, since you mentioned my story, I've come to a decision (in case you would like to know. If not.. too bad! I'm going to tell you anyway ). I'm going to continue to plow on the info-dumps, as it's only a first draft, and they come out of me naturally as I write with reckless abandon. BUT!.. In the revision stage, I'm going to take all the backstory (anything that stalls the reader's engagement in a forward moving story, as you accurately put it) and boil it down to as concise as possible.. And then, like an easter egg hunt, I'm going to chop it up into pieces and scatter it throughout the novel.. so the Expository Narrative, as I described it in the OP, will be like a story in itself, that returns here and that as an ongoing callback.. just a paragraph or two every chapter.

This way I can still satisfy my insatiable desire to be an info dumper (I'm so enamored with my world building that I can't bear to leave all of it out), while simultaneously avoiding weighing down the story with huge blocks of backstory. I'll be able to fill in the reader just as I had wanted to, but by spreading it out in bits and pieces throughout the novel.

What do you think of that approach? Cheers!


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## Cefor (Apr 19, 2012)

KyleColorado said:


> Also, since you mentioned my story, I've come to a decision (in case you would like to know. If not.. too bad! I'm going to tell you anyway ). I'm going to continue to plow on the info-dumps, as it's only a first draft, and they come out of me naturally as I write with reckless abandon. BUT!.. In the revision stage, I'm going to take all the backstory (anything that stalls the reader's engagement in a forward moving story, as you accurately put it) and boil it down to as concise as possible.. And then, like an easter egg hunt, I'm going to chop it up into pieces and scatter it throughout the novel.. so the Expository Narrative, as I described it in the OP, will be like a story in itself, that returns here and that as an ongoing callback.. just a paragraph or two every chapter.
> 
> This way I can still satisfy my insatiable desire to be an info dumper (I'm so enamored with my world building that I can't bear to leave all of it out), while simultaneously avoiding weighing down the story with huge blocks of backstory. I'll be able to fill in the reader just as I had wanted to, but by spreading it out in bits and pieces throughout the novel.
> 
> What do you think of that approach? Cheers!



This sounds like a great way of handling it, aye, Kyle. I love authors who realise that their readers are intelligent human beings, and as such do not need every little thing to be pointed out to them. Hinting at things is much more effective, in my opinion, than getting a bright neon light pointing to what you want them to know.

Even sometimes using a simple word such as 'again' can make your reader realise something vastly important about your character.

_It was that time of night again.
_
So, I try to do as you said you'll end up doing... drop little hints and sentences, maybe a paragraph here and there -- but only where it makes sense -- and let the readers figure it out throughout the book.

For example, in a science fiction piece I'm writing now, instead of actually telling the reader who it is that controls the world... I'm going to let them figure it out by the people I introduce (the King, for example) and the names of the ships (HMS Elizabeth). For someone who isn't asleep when they read it, they'll easily see who I've set up as the world power, and that's the way I like it. If I had started out with a paragraph along the lines of "By the year 2134, the small island nation of Britain had not only surpassed her rivals but..." etc; well, I would find that annoying, so I'll assume that my readers would, too.

Personally, I think that if the backstory one needs to mention is world-building, it should be with these sorts of clues that the reader can piece together _if they want to._ However, if it is character backstory, it's much more viable to use the other techniques, flashbacks obviously only deal with character backstory -- though they could reveal world story if using those hints within the flashback.

I'd be careful with dialogue, because it could be too easily contrived and planted... if it's forced conversation purely because you want to tell the readers some kind of information, it's not really worth having it there.


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## Kyle R (Apr 19, 2012)

Great input and stellar advice, Cefor. I like the way you are handling that Sci Fi story of yours. I can see how it would lead observant readers into solving the puzzle themselves, which can be its own unique type of thrill.

I also agree with your distinction between world backstory and character back story. Good stuff!

Cheers


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## Cefor (Apr 19, 2012)

I think the best thing about the way we've mentioned, Kyle, is that even to an unobservant reader, the story is still going to be great; action packed and forward-moving, without being bogged down by info-dumps or pages of exposition that they have to wade through. It works for any type of reader.

And, it rewards the type of reader that I like, so hey, it has even more perks!


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## WordVector (Apr 21, 2012)

For me it's a really careful balancing act between subtext, revealing dialogue, and just blatantly telling the reader. I think it depends on context which one is more appropriate. I do have a question for more veteran writers regarding the subject (the ones who use flashbacks anyways): How do you set up for, or transition to the flashback? I can't think of ways to do it that don't seem abrupt or cheesy, but I often want to use that technique.


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