Tackling the thorny issue of back story

[John Dean]

I am editing the first draft of the new DCI Jack Harris novel for my publisher The Book Folks and dealing, as writers always do, with the thorny issue of their characters’ past – their back story.

Back story is a common theme in my writing, my teaching and my assessment of manuscripts and a theme that I return to in my blogs on a regular basis.

Why? Because get it right and you add immeasurably to a story, get it wrong and you bring the narrative screeching to a halt and many modern readers will lose patience if that happens.

But what’s the problem when it comes to presenting the reader with back story? Surely, the reader needs to know about the character’s background? Yes, of course, they do but, as authors, we need to be careful.

Back story by definition takes the story backwards. It may be vital but it is equally vital that it does not hold up the momentum of your story. Every instance of back story stops our novel’s forward momentum.

One of the most common mistakes I note when I’m called upon to offer comments on inexperienced authors’ manuscripts is that the author has included too much back story in the opening pages, slowing the pace down.

At other times, the novel gets off to a terrific start then the writer ruins all the good work by packing in far too much background, much of which is not relevant.

In actuality, there’s very little that readers need to know about our characters’ history and motivations that they won’t learn over the course of the story with the information dropped in as the tale unfolds.

Besides, answering the reader’s questions too early and too easily takes away a large part of the incentive for them to keep reading. It deadens their curiosity.

So, how do you get back story right? Well, first of all, examine your story with a critical eye and ask: Does the reader really need to know this fact about the character? Is this detail something that I may find interesting but isn’t actually crucial to the story? Will the story fall apart if I delete this information?

But how can you discern which instances of back story are crucial to the storytelling process and which are not? Well, the best way is to challenge every piece of back story that you use to see if it is really necessary.

For example, in the book I am editing, there’s a scene where a mother reflects on the difficult relationship with her son over the years. It would not be relevant if the son does not feature prominently in the story but in this case, given that he is dead, it is a key part of the narrative so it’s relevant detail and the reflection on his relationship with his mother deserves its place on the page.