Backstory: Where to Draw the Line -- Missy Tippens

Backstory: Where to Draw the Line

Missy Tippens

I was recently talking with a new writer about backstory, and it reminded me of my first online writing class that I took way back in about 1995. Anyone remember the AOL romance writing boards and the online classes that were offered there years ago? I took my first class from Brenda Hiatt. She jumped in talking about backstory, and I immediately waved my virtual hand for the teacher’s attention, and had to ask what that was.

For any new writers who are raising your hands like I did, take a quick jaunt over to read a nice list of writing terms Janet Dean put together in a previous post. Click here to visit. Then please come back!

Now, back to backstory...

Backstory is a character's history, anything that happened to the character before the story started, anything that helped shape who he/she is. This is information that will affect how we write our characters, so we as the author need to know it.

What was his childhood like? What was his birth order? Was his childhood happy, or did a parent die or abandon him? 

What was high school like? Was she popular? Or did she not fit in? 

Did she date the football jock or the bad boy? Or did she prefer to stay home and read? 

Did he go to college? Or did he go into the military or go straight to work for his dad? 

Did she love her hometown, or was she dying to escape to somewhere else? 

Has she ever been in love? Did she fall hard for someone who cheated on her or dumped her for her best friend? Did she love her best friend, but he didn’t feel the same? 

Did he date a social butterfly who dumped him because he would never be able to provide her with what she was accustomed to? 

Is she happy with her current job? Or is she miserable and wanting to get away to somewhere new? 

Is he coming off a recent breakup? Or did he give up on love years ago? Or has he dated every single woman in town, only to realize no one can replace the one true love who died years ago? 

Has she just found out she has a new boss? Or has her friend just fixed her up on a date with a real hunk? 

Has he just run into his old best buddy from middle school—and she’s now gorgeous? Or maybe he’s run into his nemesis, the woman who got him fired from his last job.

SO MUCH TO CONSIDER! SO MUCH FUN TO BE HAD!

The problem with all this really cool backstory information, though, is that we have to eventually choose where the story is going to start—thus how much is going to be designated as backstory, and how much is going to be part of what we include in our story.

Of course, this all depends on the form you want your story to take. Some stories switch nicely from present to past, or start in the present with one scene and then jump to the past to show how they got there. But in this post, I’m talking about stories that are basically linear, starting in one place and then moving forward.

Generally, I look at the big moment of change for my protagonist, the inciting incident, and start the story right before that moment. I try to make sure the inciting incident happens in the first few pages (often, on the first page).

Once you decide where to start the story, then everything before that is backstory.

Now, the question becomes... WHAT DO I DO WITH THE BACKSTORY???

One thing you don’t want to do is a backstory dump. Sure, you need to know this past information to write real characters, characters who have flaws and wounds. But you don’t want to start out giving that information in one long chunk or you’ll lose your reader.

Thinking about how I try to handle this, I’ve come up with some tips.

Tip #1

Show just the right amount of the character’s past in the opening scene so that the reader understands what’s at stake, and so the reader can bond with a character.

I’ve been guilty of not showing enough of this. My editor has had to ask for more. But on my most recent book (turned in last month) I needed to remove some of the past thoughts from my opening because my editor felt the heroine already looked half in love with the hero (not good for the level of romantic conflict if she’s already in love).

Let’s make up a scenario to play with in this post... If your heroine was once in love with the hero, and he suddenly appears in town as her new boss (the inciting incident), don’t dump in a page of backstory that summarizes all that happened between them. Instead, quickly (and briefly) show in her thoughts or through dialogue how he hurt her in the past. This will clue in the reader that it’s not just another day at the office. And it’ll also make the reader feel sympathy for the heroine. So a few thoughts or lines of dialogue can do double duty.

And don’t dump everything else in there about her childhood or family angst or other loves. Which leads to...

Tip #2

Only show what is necessary for the reader to know WHEN it’s necessary for the reader to know.

Maybe later in the story, the reader needs to know that the reason the hero rejected the heroine was because her father threatened him (maybe she was rich and he was the poor kid across the tracks). Once the reader needs to know this information, then you can weave it through with their dialogue and thoughts. Or maybe introduce a new character—her father.

Tip #3

Avoid flashbacks when possible.

I know, I know. We could debate this topic for a week. But my suggestion for new writers is that often, you don’t really need the flashback. It can be much more effective to keep the story active in the present and have the characters talk about what happened in the past. If you show their conversation, you’ve got even more conflict from the present to add to the scene.

Using my made up heroine and her new boss, the hero who broke her heart... Instead of using a flashback to high school where the hero is telling the heroine he’s not interested, that she must have imagined his feelings for her, use an active scene where they discuss it in the present. Maybe she’s angry about something that happened at work, and she tells him she must have imagined that she put the file on his desk. And he can immediately remember that moment years ago when he broke her heart, can feel regret for the pain he caused. Or if you’re in her point of view, she can see the recognition on his face, and feel good that he knows he hurt her. This way, it’s more fun for readers, because they get to stay in the current story yet see a little more of the hurtful past revealed.

Photo credit: iStock_0000015839

Tip #4

Start a story where it really needs to be started, and don’t be tempted to write a prologue unless you have a REALLY good reason to. (You can look back at this recent post on whether to use prologues from WinnieGriggs.) 

Personally, I like to read prologues. But I still feel I need to warn against using one without a good reason—and it’s for the same reason I gave in tip #3. You want the reader to stay in an active, present story. Why? Because the outcome of the current problem is what’s important to readers. They want to see the characters facing trials, overcoming, growing, changing and winning. Events that already happened in the past...well, they’ve already happened and can’t be changed (unless you’re writing time travel!). :)

If you’ve written a prologue already, consider whether there are places in your story where you could feed in that information in bits of dialogue or thoughts. Could keeping that prologue a mystery even help your story? Maybe you could open your story hinting at an event in the past so the reader will want to keep reading to find out what happened.

Tip #5

Not everything that happened in the past is relevant.

Don’t feel like you have to include everything you dream up about your characters in your story. Use only what is going to reveal character, enhance conflict, reveal motivation, or drive character actions.

Don’t include that when the hero was five he ate Cheerios every morning for breakfast...unless it’s important. If he ate them because he likes the taste and still eats them every day, that’s probably not useful (unless it shows he never likes to vary his routine, which drives the heroine crazy). Or did he develop that habit because his mom deserted him and that’s all he could prepare for himself? That might be important in the present when he’s scared to love the heroine, afraid she’ll leave him.

Pick and choose. Use details from the past only if they’re important to the current story.

But the reverse it true as well. Go digging into these details and find some you can add to your story! Use them to enhance the conflict or characterization. Use them to add emotional depth. Use those past fears to cause bad decisions with consequences, which will show character growth.

And HAVE FUN WITH IT!

Today, I’d love to hear what details from your characters’ backstory that you’ve used to enhance the present story. Do you use flashbacks? Do you like to read them? Please share!

GIVEAWAY! If you’d like to win a critique of your first 5 pages for how well you’ve used backstory, please let me know in the comments that you’d like to be entered!

******

Missy Tippens, a pastor’s wife and mom of three from near Atlanta, Georgia, made her first sale to Harlequin Love Inspired in 2007. Her books have since been nominated for the Booksellers Best, ACFW Carol Award, Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, Maggie Award, Beacon Contest and a 2013 RT Reviewer’s Choice Award. A House Full of Hope was a Romance Writers of America 2013 RITA^® Nominee. Her next from Love Inspired, coming in October, is The Guy Next Door. Visit Missy at www.missytippens.com.

To Prologue Or Not To Prologue - Answering The Question

with guest Winnie Griggs

Before we get started, I always like to make sure everyone is on the same page, so let’s define what a prologue is.  One definition I found puts it this way:  

A Prologue is the section of a novel, ranging from a few paragraphs to several pages, that comes before the true beginning of the story.

In other words, it is a passage of your work that is disconnected from your main story by either time or viewpoint, and, that is used to provide a key bit of information the writer wants the reader to know before diving in to the story proper.

So now that we have the WHAT out of the way, let’s talk about whether prologues bring any value to the table or not.  A lot of folks out there, including many agents, editors and readers, will tell you absolutely not.  And, while I don’t agree that prologues are absolutely NEVER of any value, I understand why this sentiment exists.  Prologues, when done poorly, can do much more harm than good for a story. 

There are two types of issues with Prologues.

1.  Prologues are often poorly constructed.  Examples of this can include:

It is a thinly disguised Information Dump:

Many eager but inexperienced writers will try to cram an inordinate amount of backstory and/or world building into the prologue in order to properly ’set the stage’ for their story.  The problem is, an info dump is an info dump, no matter where it appears.  Even though you as the writer have spent countless hours working to develop a rich, highly detailed backstory for your character and/or your story world, it would be a real mistake to try to just force feed it all to your reader, especially at the opening of your story when you are trying to convince said reader that your book is one worth diving in to.  Face it, if the first page of your book doesn’t intrigue the reader enough to make her want to go on, it doesn’t matter how fabulous the rest of the story is, you’ve already lost the game.

It misleads the reader:

This can happen in one of two ways - it either doesn’t reflect the tone of the rest of the book or the action and/or characters seem totally disconnected from the rest of the book.  No matter how well written, if the reader is jarred when they move from the prologue to chapter one, they may give up on the story entirely.

It lacking a hook or a sense of what’s at stake:

If the writer fails to capture the reader’s interest and/or fails to give her a reason to care about the character or world from the get-go,  then again, he risks having the reader put the book down and never pick it up again.  You’ve got to give her something of substance, something that makes her want to keep turning the page.

2.  Another common problem is that Prologues are often written for the wrong reason.  Examples of wrong reasons can include

To hook the reader:  

This may seem counter-intuitive because of course you want to hook the reader.  But if you’re writing the prologue because you fear your Chapter One opening is not strong enough and this nifty prologue will really wow and draw your reader in - ditch it.  Instead, work on strengthening or completely revamping your Chapter One opening.  Because even with a prologue, your first chapter opening needs to provide a strong hook of its very own.

To set the stage.

Unless it is absolutely, positively essential that the reader know this bit of backstory or world building in order to understand your story before it even begins, don’t put it in a prologue.  The problem with this type of prologue is the reader hasn’t met your characters or entered your world yet so has no reason to care about its history.  They want the story, not the set-up for the story.   If this necessary bit of info can be woven in some other way without hindering the reader experience, then that is a better choice.

To provide a ‘taste of things to come’

This is my own personal least favorite type of prologue.  The writer takes a highly charged passage from later in the book and puts it in a prologue as a sort of teaser, hoping it will then make the reader eager to dive in and see how things got to this point.  Again, this is likely a sign that the actual opening of the story lacks a strong enough hook to pull the reader in and the writer is hoping the reader will stick with him based on the promise of the prologue.  The fix for this, again, is to work on strengthening your Chapter One opening. 


What all of this boils down to is this - if the only reason you are writing the prologue is because you want to convey something to the reader about how your characters or world arrived at this point, than we (and our readers) are better served by finding another way to weave the information into the fabric of your story. 

One exception to this is when you want to provide a brief, thumbnail sketch of massive amounts of history that are relevant to your story - think of the scrolling text opening of the original Star Wars movie or the voiceover narration of the first Lord Of The Rings movie.

Otherwise, the only other valid reason to include a prologue is if it can pass this test: 
By providing this information to your reader at the very outset, it will in some way up the tension in your story.  Because story tension, after all, is what makes for a page turner.

Okay, so if you decide after reading all of the above, that you do indeed need a prologue, here are a few tips to help you make it really sing.

• Pare your information down to the bare essentials of what needs to be revealed so that you can get to the true opening of your story as quickly as possible.

•  Make the prologue vivid and involving in its own right, a mini-story of sorts.

• Construct it in such a way that it raises story questions for the reader that propels her farther into the story to find the answer.

•  Remember, the opening of chapter one must also have a strong hook of its own.  Your story will in effect have two starting points and you will need to develop two very strong opening hooks to draw your reader in. 

I’ve written prologues for several of my books, but only one ever made it past the cutting room floor (and I’m the one who cut them, not my editor).  The one that survived is from one of my earlier books that is now long out of print.  The prologue for that particular book is what came to me first, what drove me to write that story, and it had a visceral impact on me as I wrote it. 

I’ve studied it a bit since I’ve gained some distance from it, and if I was writing it today, I would definitely tighten it a bit, but I don’t think I’d cut it all together.  Not only because I have an admittedly sentimental attachment to it, but also because it does serve a very important function.  In this case it is a traumatic scene from the hero’s childhood and it is designed to show him in a very sympathetic light.  That’s important because when we first meet him as an adult he takes some actions that make him seem a less than sympathetic character.  

Hopefully, having read the prologue, the reader will give him the benefit of the doubt until we get a little deeper into the story.

If you’d like to take a peek at that prologue, you can see it at this link:  http://winniegriggs.com/SM-prologue.html.  I’d love to get your comments on whether you think it should be kept or cut, using the criteria of whether it would propel you forward and make you want to dive into the story, or if it is something you would skip over so you could get to the ‘real story’.

So let’s talk about how you feel about prologues - Love ‘em?  Hate ‘em?  Could care less?  Any pet peeves about them or thoughts on what makes for a good prologue that I didn’t mention here?

Winnie Griggs is a multi-published author who writes for Love Inspired Historical.  Her writing has garnered enthusiastic reviews and numerous awards, including a recent RT Reviewer’s Choice Award. 

 Winnie spent her childhood in an undeveloped area her friends thought of as the very back of beyond.  She and her two younger siblings spent many an hour exploring the overgrown land around her home, cutting jungle trails, building forts and frontier camps, and looking for pirate ships on the nearby bayou.  Once she ‘grew up’ she found other outlets for dealing with all those wonderful, adventurous imaginary friends by filling notebooks with their stories.   

 Eventually she found her own Prince Charming, a rancher whose white steed is disguised as a tractor and whose kingdom is nestled in a small rural community she happily calls home.  Together they’ve built their own storybook happily-ever-after,  including four now grown children who share Winnie’s vivid imagination and her husband’s steadier influences and who are now out in the world pursuing their own adventures.

 You can learn more about Winnie and her books at www.winniegriggs.com or connect with her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/WinnieGriggs.Author


Today Winnie is generously giving one commenter their choice of any book from her backlist  (check here) or a raincheck for her upcoming release Lone Star Heiress. Leave a comment for a chance to win. Winner announced in the Weekend Edition.


You can preorder her June release, Lone Star Heiress now.

 Rescuer Turned Husband?

Plucky Ivy Feagan is headed to Turnabout, Texas, to claim an inheritance, not a widower's heart. That all changes when strapping schoolteacher Mitch Parker rescues her in the wilderness. Straightlaced Mitch has never met a woman like Ivy—beautiful, adventurous and good-hearted—but he already lost love once and doesn't dare try again.

When Turnabout's gossips target Mitch and Ivy's friendship, he proposes to save her reputation. But Ivy doesn't want to marry for honor, and she doesn't need to marry for money. Ivy will only agree to a proposal made for love's sake—but will Mitch make his heart part of the marriage offer?

Texas Grooms: In search of their brides…
 

And remember to share your Speedbo daily victories or ...problems..for a chance at a critique or two $25 Amazon gift cards.  Winners announced in the Weekend Edition.

Should your novel have a prologue?

Should your novel have a prologue? Hmm, that depends. If it provides information essential to the plot and reveals significant facts that can’t be shown as well in any other way, then go for it. (Like everything else—if it doesn’t work, you can always delete. You’re the boss, at least until you have an editor!)

Still, we need a good reason to add a prologue. Maybe the prologue scene happens during another time and at another location so it doesn’t quite fit with the first chapter. Here’s a test: try to leave it out—is anything important missing? Or try to change it to Chapter One—does it damage the integrity of the plot? If the answers to these two questions are yes, then you probably need to consider writing a prologue.

There are four major types of prologues.

According to Lital Talmore the first kind, ‘the future protagonist’ prologue, shows the hero or heroine after the main portion of the story has already taken place. It primary purpose is to give the end of the story first, while the rest of the book tells what leads up to it--the book backtracks from the end to the beginning. A first person POV memoir is a good example of this.

The second type of prologue is called ‘past protagonist.’ It’s usually used as an important or defining moment from the heroine’s past that impacts upon the present story. It can explain some of the motivations and conflicts in a hero or heroines’ life in a much more dramatic way than just weaving the information into the main body of the novel. It can also keep the author from having to write a long flashback. Putting a strong, emotional event in the prologue starts the book off to a dynamic start. It also will probably make the hero/heroine sympathetic and begin to create a bond with the reader.

The next kind, called the ‘different POV’ prologue, describes a particular event from the POV of a character who isn’t the hero/heroine. This important event can take place during the same timeframe as chapter one, or before or after. But eventually it will connect with some part of the novel and its significance will become apparent. It’ll be relevant and effect the plot. If the book is written in first person then the prologue may be in some other character’s third person POV.

In this type of prologue the writer can introduce a danger that the reader should know about, but the hero shouldn’t, at least not now. This is often used in suspense stories where the prologue is in the villain’s POV.

The last kind is the ‘background’ prologue. These are common in science-fiction and fantasy stories where the reader needs to know some information about the special world. But keep it interesting or the reader skip over it.

I was surprised when my editor asked me to write a prologue for Love on a Dime, my first book in the Ladies of Summerhill series. I was under the impression that prologues were usually frowned upon by editors. But she thought it was important to show the break up of my heroine and hero, Lilly and Jack, which occurred several years before the actual story begins. I’d told all about it, but I hadn’t shown it in the first few chapters. At the time I didn’t realize how much more effective showing can be over just telling. What happened to tear the couple apart impacted greatly upon their relationship in the story. So I did what any new writer does--I took my editor’s suggestions. It turned out to be excellent advice and just a small amount of extra work.

First of all, through writing the prologue I discovered so much about my hero and heroine I hadn’t thought about before. Okay, I should’ve already known all about this crucial event in great detail, but I’m afraid I didn’t know enough. I also learned more about Lilly and Jack’s emotions and how their break up affected their future lives. Lilly’s parents came to life, too. Now I understood the entire story better and could improve the manuscript.

Book three in the series, Love by the Book, also has a prologue. This time I wrote one without any prompting from my editor. It was obvious right from the beginning that I needed to show Melinda and Jack’s reactions to the news they were going to share guardianship of their niece Nell. The prologue shows their immediate reactions to each other and the new, unexpected situation that turns their lives upside down. This is the beginning of their character arcs.

Six months later when the three of them come together at Summerhill (chapter one) they’ve already started to change. We see their goals, motivations, and conflicts in the prologues and can look ahead to anticipate the problems they’ll encounter during the summer. The setting has changed from New York City to Newport, Rhode Island.

Since the prologue is the opening scene you’ll have to write two opening scenes—the prologue and chapter one. I found that a prologue made the first chapter easier to write because I didn’t have to weave in so much information the reader needed right at the beginning.

Here’s the first page of the Love by the Book prologue.

Prologue
NEW YORK CITY, JANUARY 1901
Melinda’s sharp intake of breath shattered the silence. All eyes turned toward her, but Melinda could do nothing but stare at the attorney. Had she misheard her sister’s will? Or had he misread it? How could Cora leave her daughter to Melinda’s care—as well as Nick’s? She couldn’t imagine.
Cora had never mentioned such an odd arrangement, but then again her sister normally avoided unpleasant subjects. A wave of panic swept through Melinda. No one loved Nell more than she. No one. But being a mother was far different than being the doting aunt...
Attention shifted from her to Nick. Seated at the other end of the semicircle of family members, Nick’s blue-gray eyes were still wide with shock. The minutes dragged by until finally, mercifully, Mr. Ricker concluded the reading and dismissed the others. Nick immediately rose and walked over to join them.
Mr. Ricker cleared his throat and spoke in a hushed tone. “You both seem surprised by the custody situation. But let me assure you Mrs. Parker Bryson insisted you two share guardianship—for reasons of her own.” He looked from Melinda to Nick, frowning.

If you’d like to read the rest of the prologue and chapter one of Love by the Book, you can find it at my website www.caralynnjames.com



Oops, I just realized I forgot to mention I'll be giving away a copy of Love by the Book. If you'd prefer either Love on a Dime or Love on Assignment I'll send one of them. Either print or e-book.