FRIDAY FEBRUARY 10, 2012
A heartfelt THANK YOU to Autumn Jordon and PFS for inviting me to be their guest today!
Winning Backstory: Not an Oxymoron
By Margie Lawson
You can write backstory that makes me smile.
You can write backstory that earns the coveted Margie margin note, NYT.
You can write backstory that boosts your novel onto bestseller lists.
Or you can write backstory that invites me to skim.
Are you in?
What is backstory? It’s history. It’s the events that led up to your story before the story opens. Often, motivation for your POV character’s decisions and actions are in the backstory.
Sometimes backstory is stagnant. Flat. Boring.
Readers lose interest in the book and put it down.
AACK! You want to write an unputdownable novel.
The best way to include the absolutely required backstory and keep your novel fast-paced, is to sprinkle it in your story.
With my EDITS System, backstory will jump out at you in big puddles of YELLOW.
Too much backstory grinds your story to a halt. Cliché alert!
Too much backstory grinds your story to a screeching halt. Bigger cliché alert!
Managing backstory is tricky. Writers always think the reader needs all the history the writer created in his/her mind.
Not true. The reader only needs what little information required to buy the story.
When you review a scene, analyze the backstory, ask yourself if the reader needs to have that information now. Or – if they need that information. Period.
One rule of thumb for managing backstory (cliché alert) is to withhold backstory until after chapter three. Those writers hypothesize that by then, your reader is hooked on your story and will tolerate some chunks of backstory.
Not my favorite plan.
Some authors hold off backstory in the first few chapters then start feeding the readers chunks of backstory. Sometimes pages of backstory.
Not my favorite plan.
Mark Sullivan (mystery/suspense/thriller writer) has a great plan for backstory management. Here’s his plan – which is my favorite plan.
He suggests writing down what you think the reader needs to know. Write a page or two of backstory. Not to be used in your book.
Grab a red pen – and go through your backstory points and circle what the reader absolutely has to know.
What they absolutely need to know.
Let go of things that you thought were important but don’t need to include. Just because you think it is interesting doesn’t mean the reader ABSOLUTELY NEEDS TO KNOW IT.
Next, take those points you circled, that the reader absolutely needs to know, and picture them etched on a sheet of glass.
Got it?
You’re imagining those points imprinted on a rectangle of glass.
Imagine carrying that sheet of glass to a brick patio.
Imagine standing on a brick patio, holding that sheet of glass.
YOU KNOW WHAT’S COMING!
Drop that sheet of glass.
Watch it shatter.
Imagine picking up one thin shard of glass at a time – and slipping each sliver of backstory in your first 100 pages.
Repeat. You insert one sliver of backstory in those first 100 pages, one piece of backstory at a time.
Slip shards of backstory in natural-sounding dialogue or share it in a quick interactive way. You’ve got the first 100 pages of your book to fit in each sliver of backstory.
No info-dumps.
You’ll be so good at slipping in backstory that you’ll have a smooth, fast-paced read.
When I heard Mark Sullivan share this visual, it resonated with me. Great visual. Great
plan.
You may believe your genre or story or style needs more backstory as set up.
Okay. You may be right.
AND – I bet you can share the backstory in a compelling way.
When an author finesses backstory, it draws you in. Keeps the story moving. Makes the read more compelling.
When an author chunks back story, it stops the action. Stops the story. It tempts the reader to skim. And when someone is skimming, they’re not engaged in the scene. They’re no longer hooked.
Let’s dive into some examples of what works.
Example: From THE WOODS, by Harlan Coben. Prologue, first page, third paragraph:
I have never seen my father cry before—not when his own father died, not when my mother ran off and left us, not even when he first heard about my sister, Camille.
Analysis: What did Harlan Coben accomplish, and how?
He used the rhetorical device, anaphora, to share backstory. He gave the reader four hits of powerful backstory in one sentence. Four hits of powerful backstory in thirty-three words.
Read it out loud this time:
I have never seen my father cry before—not when his own father died, not when my mother ran off and left us, not even when he first heard about my sister, Camille.
Succinct. Informative. Fast-paced. Cadence-driven. Intriguing. Enticing.
No chunk of backstory that invites the reader to skim.
Plus - that one sentence introduces story questions.
Why is his father crying?
Why did his mother run off and leave them?
What happened to his sister, Camille?
Smart to use a rhetorical device like anaphora to share backstory. Anaphora is one of the thirty rhetorical devices I cover in the Deep Editing course I teach in March.
Example: From STOP ME, by Brenda Novak, Chapter 1:
But Jasmine’s thoughts were so focused on what was in her lap, she couldn’t even raise her hand. She’d made that bracelet as a gift for her little sister. She remembered Kimberly’s delight when she’d unwrapped it on her eighth birthday, her last birthday before the tall man with the beard entered their house in Cleveland one sunny afternoon and took her away.
Analysis:
Look at that smooth passage. In just three sentences, Brenda Novak covered a lot of backstory.
She showed how seeing her sister’s bracelet impacted Jasmine.
She tapped emotion by sharing that the POV character made the bracelet for her little sister.
She showed her sister’s joy.
She slipped in her sister’s age
She identified the city
She shared that Jasmine’s sister was kidnapped
Plus, the cadence is strong. The words drive the reader through the paragraph from the first word to the last.
Example: DIVORCED, DESPERATE, AND DECEIVED, Christie Craig, Chapter 1, page 3:
“Did he bring her with him when he picked up Tommy?” Sue asked.
Kathy wished she could pretend she didn’t understand the question. Wished she’d never told them that Tom had married TOW, “The Other Woman.” But during the last Jack Daniel’s night—at which, quite unfairly, neither Sue nor Lacy could imbibe—Kathy had accidentally spilled her guts. Or at least she’d spilled a bit of them. The big secrets were still in the bag. And they could stay bagged. It would take more than a couple shots of Jack for her to hang out her dirty laundry. Even to her two closest friends.
Analysis:
Christie Craig shares her humor and her talent in this fast-paced addictive romance. This passage is a light read that carries a big hit of mysterious backstory. Kathy has secrets, big secrets, that she won’t divulge to her two best friends.
Hmm – makes you want to read more. Right?
Example: BRIDGE OF SCARLET LEAVES, by Kristina McMorris,
Opening of Chapter 1, six paragraphs:
November 1941
Los Angeles, Calif.
At the sound of her brother's voice, flutters of joy turned to panic in Maddie Kern. "Cripes," she whispered, perched on her vanity seat. "What's he doing home?"
Jo Allister, her closest girlfriend and trusted lookout, cracked open the bedroom door. She peeked into the hall as TJ hollered again from downstairs.
"Maddie! You here?"
It was six o'clock on a Friday. He should have been at his campus job all night. If he knew who was about to pick her up for a date….
She didn't want to imagine what he would do.
Maddie scanned the room, seeking a solution amidst her tidy collection of belongings—framed family photos on the bureau, her posters of the New York Symphony, of Verdi's Aida at the Philharmonic. But even her violin case, which she'd defended from years of dings and scratches, seemed to shake its head from the corner and say, Six months of sneaking around and you're surprised this would happen?
Analysis: Kristina McMorris opens with tension, and slips in backstory in a short internalization and through setting. She uses the rhetorical device, personification, for the violin case to share this critical hit of backstory: Six months of sneaking around and you're surprised this would happen?
Kristina could have written a couple of typical feed-backstory-to-the-reader sentences about who Maddie was dating and why it would upset her brother if he knew. So glad she shared backstory in a more interesting way.
If you subscribe to RT, you’ll see Kristina McMorris’s smile on the cover of the March, 2012 issue. I bet you’ll enjoy the two-page article on Kristina and her WW II novels.
Example: THIRD GRAVE DEAD AHEAD, by Darynda Jones – released, January 31, 2012
Third Grave Dead Ahead just hit #26 on the NYT Bestseller list! Kudos to Darynda Jones!
If you guessed that THIRD GRAVE was the third book in a series, you guessed right.
Here’s how Darynda shares some hints about her POV character in the third paragraph of page one.
My name is Charlotte Davidson. Charley to some, Charlotte the Harlot to others, but that was mostly in middle school. I came with a decent set of curves, a healthy respect for the male anatomy, and a slightly disturbing addiction to brown edibles. Other than that— and the fact that I’d also been born the grim reaper— I was about as normal as a surly girl with a private investigator’s license could be.
Darynda shared a lot of info with the reader in those 73 words on page one. Directly and indirectly.
On page six, Darynda introduced a main character. Here’s his intro and a quick hit of backstory.
Reyes Alexander Farrow— the part- human, part- supermodel son of Satan— materialized behind me, his powerful shoulders glistening as steam rose around him, giving the impression he’d just come from hell. He hadn’t, of course. He’d escaped from hell centuries ago and was currently furious with me for binding his incorporeal body to his physical one.
A compelling paragraph that shares backstory.
Darynda’s books are powered by humor and fresh writing. Strong deep editing fuel.
I’m proud to share that Brenda Novak, Christie Craig, Kristina McMorris, and Darynda Jones are all Margie-grads. :-))
Analyze your writing. Deep edit your scenes. Make your backstory carry style and power. Make your backstory boost your writing toward a contract or onto a best seller list!
It’s your turn now! Chime in.
Share your thoughts on these examples – or just say Hi!
POST A COMMENT – AND YOU MAY WIN a Lecture Packet or an online course by Margie Lawson or Tiffany Lawson Inman from Lawson Writer’s Academy!
I’ll draw the winning name tonight, 9:00PM Mountain Time. Check back and see if you’re the WINNER!
Please check out my deep editing courses, and other courses offered by Lawson Writer’s Academy. Thank you!
March courses include:
Using the Rule of Six for Plotting
Instructor: Shirley Jump
M&Ms for Characters: Milieu & Motivation
Instructor: Sharon Mignerey
Deep Editing: The EDITS System, Rhetorical Devices, and More
Instructor: Margie Lawson
Margie Lawson —psychotherapist, editor, and international presenter—developed innovative editing systems and deep editing techniques used by writers, from newbies to NYT Bestsellers. She teaches writers how to edit for psychological power, how to hook the reader viscerally, how to create a page-turner.
Thousands of writers have learned Margie’s psychologically-based deep editing material. In the last seven years, she presented over seventy full day Master Classes for writers in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
For more information on Lawson Writer’s Academy, lecture packets, full day master classes, newsletter, and the 5-day Immersion Master Class sessions offered in her Colorado mountain-top home, visit: www.MargieLawson.com.
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