Comments on: Backstory: The More I Know, The Less You Have To https://writersinthestormblog.com/2019/05/backstory-the-more-i-know/ A Blog On Writing Sun, 12 Jan 2025 04:52:12 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 By: ? Writing Links Round Up 7/29-8/2 – B. Shaun Smith https://writersinthestormblog.com/2019/05/backstory-the-more-i-know/#comment-142012 Mon, 05 Aug 2019 19:13:01 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=37105#comment-142012 […] Backstory: The More I Know, The Less You Have To […]

]]> By: Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt https://writersinthestormblog.com/2019/05/backstory-the-more-i-know/#comment-140938 Fri, 17 May 2019 17:56:35 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=37105#comment-140938 If the writer knows the backstory, she can't help it showing in the plot - and my rule for myself is that NOTHING is allowed unless the pov character would legitimately think or say it at that exact moment.

Then, if the plot needs something, I have to make sure the rule is followed, and the character gives the reader the information 'organically,' without the slightest cheating for doing an info dump.

Now I can't read the novels of many authors who pause to describe each new character in detail - it's just such a halt in the story.

]]> By: Top Picks Thursday! For writers & Readers 05-16-2019 | The Author Chronicles https://writersinthestormblog.com/2019/05/backstory-the-more-i-know/#comment-140927 Thu, 16 May 2019 17:01:48 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=37105#comment-140927 […] If you’re developing characters, Kristen Lamb delves into crafting the perfect ‘unlikable’ character, while Piper Bayard discusses backstory: the more I know, the less you have to. […]

]]> By: Elf Ahearn https://writersinthestormblog.com/2019/05/backstory-the-more-i-know/#comment-140908 Wed, 15 May 2019 14:48:18 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=37105#comment-140908 Hey Piper, your article could not have been more timely: I'm development editing a manuscript that is chock full of backstory. In this case, it's not just character backstory, but research backstory as well. The fine points of doing X, Y, and Z are carefully explained, yet the H/Hs are not doing X, Y, and Z. Therefore, I am pinning a quote from this article to my refrigerator; "Excess backstory is the visible evidence of we writers telling ourselves our stories."

]]> By: dholcomb1 https://writersinthestormblog.com/2019/05/backstory-the-more-i-know/#comment-140893 Sun, 12 May 2019 04:33:37 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=37105#comment-140893 That's a great list! I write stuff like that down as I write, but writing it ahead of time could be more productive. I saw a similar list in a writing plotting planner an author had in a video, but she was selling it and didn't show the whole list. I really appreciate you sharing it.

denise

]]> By: LivRancourt https://writersinthestormblog.com/2019/05/backstory-the-more-i-know/#comment-140891 Sat, 11 May 2019 22:06:54 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=37105#comment-140891 This is such a validating - and entertaining! - post. For my current WIP, don't have much more than a one-line concept (a physician lives with his sister the apothecary and together they solve mysteries) but I've been reading up on Victorian London and mind-mapping the characters. I've been beating myself up a little because so far I don't have any words on this project, but maybe all this groundwork is what needs to happen before I start to write. Thanks!

]]> By: Fae Rowen https://writersinthestormblog.com/2019/05/backstory-the-more-i-know/#comment-140888 Sat, 11 May 2019 20:16:08 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=37105#comment-140888 What a wonderful article, Piper! You nailed the "thinking about it" BIG TIME. I've been "thinking about" two characters as I've spent the past three years writing, editing and releasing two other books in a totally different universe. I'd written a couple of chapters, just so I wouldn't lose the story. What I actually did, was write down all the backstory I had about the characters. Ha! Thanks again for something I can reread at the beginning—before I write a word—of each book.

]]> By: Julie Glover https://writersinthestormblog.com/2019/05/backstory-the-more-i-know/#comment-140887 Sat, 11 May 2019 17:44:33 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=37105#comment-140887 This is one of the things I didn't realize before I began writing books--how much research and thinking about your character's backstory goes into writing a novel, even where not much of that is shown. You can't have a three-dimensional character if they just started to exist on page one with no prior life, but neither does anyone explain their whole backstory to someone upon meeting them.

Thanks in particular for that great series of questions! That list is worth printing out and referring to when developing characters.

]]> By: Darnell Cureton https://writersinthestormblog.com/2019/05/backstory-the-more-i-know/#comment-140873 Sat, 11 May 2019 15:53:06 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=37105#comment-140873 In reply to Jenny Hansen.

Thanks Jenny! ?

]]> By: Darnell Cureton https://writersinthestormblog.com/2019/05/backstory-the-more-i-know/#comment-140872 Sat, 11 May 2019 15:51:31 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=37105#comment-140872 In reply to Laura Drake.

You're welcome ?

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