Telling character backstory is sometimes necessary to show why your character has a specific motivation or mindset. Yet it’s important to learn how to write backstory that will not bog your novel down in constant harking back to prior events that occurred before the present time of your narrative. Read 5 tips for using backstory better:
1: Choose what to explain using backstory and what to leave a mystery.
2: Only use backstory for characters to explain behaviour and plot developments.
3: Find how to write backstory without leaving your story’s present time.
4: Know when to tell backstory and when to show it.
5: Use narrative devices such as a prologue or beginning in medias res to get backstory out the way.
Let’s unpack each of these points. First, what is backstory exactly? See More . . .