by Lisa Hall-Wilson

Backstory – how much of what’s happened before our stories take place, do readers really need to understand our characters? Many newer writers fall into the trap of using too much backstory, with the author voice summarizing and explaining. Those with more experience, understanding the pitfalls of too much telling, can find their writing too sparse and leave readers stumbling through the narrative trying to piece together why a character is thinking and feeling as they do.

If you’ve been around WITS for very long, you know that I talk about deep point of view exclusively. So, how do we take backstory and apply it to deep point of view?

Deep POV wants to remove the author voice entirely. There’s no outside voice to explain or summarize the past or what’s motivating a character. Rather, deep POV wants readers limited to what the POV character can see, hear, know, feel, understand, learn, etc. And that can feel pretty limiting, but if we can stretch our creativity to remain in deep POV, the backstory can enhance the story experience without boring or losing readers.

Memories And Past Experiences Must Come To Mind Organically

In real life, our brain makes myriad connections to past experiences to help us navigate present circumstances.

• What has happened in the past that will help us understand the stakes in a given situation?
• How did we handle that in the past?
• What outcome are we looking for?

Our brains mostly do all this in split seconds, so quickly that we might not even be able to articulate all that’s gone into a decision unless we sit down to unpick why we thought or felt a particular way.

But there’s always a thread that connects the thoughts, the memories, and the emotions. Make sure that thread is clear for readers. Give your character an organic reason to think of the past – what has brought it to mind?

If the reader needs information about a non-point of view character, think how the point of view character can give that info to the reader organically.

• Do they have some shared past together to draw upon?
• Is there body language that might hint there’s more going on than what they’re saying?

Sensory details are a great thread to pull to connect with past memories or feelings, especially sound and smell.

• Ask what’s similar about the present and the past experience you need the character to recall?
• Is it a feeling?
• Is there a thematic connection: vulnerability, affection, betrayal, fear?

Dropping in backstory without some thread for context feels like author intrusion and usually involves far too much telling to explain why you’re writing about that past experience.

Sally wrapped her fingers around the mug of hot tea. Her fingertips finally warming, she traced the hairline cracks running down the sides of the cup, over the yellowed glue adhering the handle on. Sally smiled. Grandma had never thrown anything away.

Drip In Backstory

Backstory needs to be dripped in a drop at a time. Only give the reader what they absolutely must know in order to keep the story moving while understanding the point of view character’s motivations and desires. Generally, readers need far less backstory than we want to give them.

Keep in mind that we rarely dwell upon our most painful memories. We skim over them, we ignore them, we intellectualize them – all sorts of things. Focus on how those past events felt, and how those feelings colour the present to influence decisions and attitudes.

Beta readers and critique partners are our best assets to know how much detail the reader needs to understand what’s going on right now. With deep POV, it’s very easy to fall down a rabbit trail that leaves the character navel gazing or monologuing.

By keeping the backstory brief, you keep the pace moving. My personal rule is to keep backstory to no more than a sentence, even a sentence fragment. I don’t always keep that rule, but if I find the backstory waxing on for a paragraph or two, that’s usually a sign I’m telling the reader what’s going on instead of having the character experience what’s going on.

Answer One Question And Leave Readers With More

One of the pitfalls of including backstory is that it has a tendency to strip away the suspense in a story.

Use backstory to answer one reader question, but then leave them with two more.

She reached her hand through the crack in the door and groped for the light. Her heartbeat pounding against her throat. This was just like last time.

This is cliché, but do you see what I mean? Don’t give the reader ALL the information they need, just give them enough to keep leaning in.

Felora leaned against a corner post with her back to the street, cleaning her fingernails with a small blade. Edric repressed a smile. Even as a child, she’d hated getting her hands dirty but never had enough sense to stay out of the mud.

I needed readers to understand that Edric and Felora had known each other a long time and that Edric thought her impulsive and rash. That he looked down on her. Why does he look down on her? They find that out later. This is pure backstory, but it doesn’t read like it. It’s all filtered through the point of view character.

Barric trailed his hand across his father’s empty desk. It should be covered in ledgers and read missives and a vase of fresh flowers. No—his mother had always brought in flowers. Lady Eadyth thought flowers wasteful and decadent.

I’ve used Barric’s interaction with the setting to organically spark a memory and filter it through his perspective. I wanted readers to know that he’s been away from his childhood home long enough that it doesn’t feel quite like home anymore. Readers already know his father remarried and was murdered (the events not related), but I needed them to know that Barric wasn’t a fan of his step-mother. I also wanted to give some insight into his character. A man who doesn’t think a vase of fresh flowers is wasteful. Hmmm… Drip drip drip.

Keep it short. Keep it totally relevant.

Remember to filter it through the point of view character’s perspective and priorities even if it’s about another character.

Using Backstory As Context

Context is a great way to remove telling in deep POV, and sometimes we can use backstory to create that context.

Uncle Pete would know what to do. He was a twenty-year veteran of the RCMP.

Here, the author voice is explaining who Uncle Pete is to readers who haven’t met him yet. Instead, keeping the same point of view character, let’s use context and backstory to get the info to readers that Uncle Pete is an experienced cop without using the author voice to summarize or explain.

The engine roared to life and Pete hit the gas so hard gravel hit the garage behind the car like scatter shot. He pressed a button on the steering wheel. Phone rang once.

“Hey Chief! What’s up? Thought you were cooking turkey—”

“Call everyone in.” His voice was matter-of-fact, flat, but he strangled the steering wheel around the corner.

“Uhhh…” Ivy stuttered. “Everything OK?” Her tone deepened a smidge.

“Just do it. Now. Get everybody in.”

“Got it.”

The rewrite drips in the backstory of who Uncle Pete is, doesn’t employ the author voice, and keeps the story moving. The first way seems efficient, and it is, but often there’s a workaround that doesn’t use the author voice.

How much backstory do you use in your writing, and is there room to tighten it up to keep the pace flowing?

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About Lisa

Lisa Hall-Wilson is a writing teacher and award-winning writer and author. She’s the author of Method Acting For Writers: Learn Deep Point Of View Using Emotional Layers. Her blog, Beyond Basics For Writers, explores all facets of the popular writing style deep point of view and offers practical tips for writers. 

She runs the free Facebook group Going Deeper With Emotions where she shares tips and videos on writing in deep point of view. 

Top Image by JPataG from Pixabay