A Writer's Guide to Active Setting (2015)
“The Free Dictionary by Farlex uses this definition: “The experiences of a character or the circumstances of an event that occur before the action or narrative of a literary, cinematic, or dramatic work.”
Simply, backstory is anything that has happened before your current story that impacts what will happen in your story. Let’s say your character likes to eat beets. Yes, that’s a decision made before your story begins, but if it doesn’t impact your story, it isn’t a necessary part of the backsto...ry. Your character losing her mother and father in a fatal car accident and thus avoiding vehicles whenever possible, even when she must save the world—that’s backstory.
Newer and even some more experienced writers struggle with how to filter in backstory. Very new writers tend to dump a lot of backstory in the first few chapters—telling the reader that “x” has happened to this character, which is why they are broken, disillusioned, or afraid now. That’s called an information dump and nothing is more effective in stopping the forward momentum of a story than throwing a lot of past history at the reader.MoreLess
Simply, backstory is anything that has happened before your current story that impacts what will happen in your story. Let’s say your character likes to eat beets. Yes, that’s a decision made before your story begins, but if it doesn’t impact your story, it isn’t a necessary part of the backsto...ry. Your character losing her mother and father in a fatal car accident and thus avoiding vehicles whenever possible, even when she must save the world—that’s backstory.
Newer and even some more experienced writers struggle with how to filter in backstory. Very new writers tend to dump a lot of backstory in the first few chapters—telling the reader that “x” has happened to this character, which is why they are broken, disillusioned, or afraid now. That’s called an information dump and nothing is more effective in stopping the forward momentum of a story than throwing a lot of past history at the reader.MoreLess
Read book A Writer's Guide to Active Setting for free
You can download books for free in various formats, such as epub, pdf, azw, mobi, txt and others on book networks site. Additionally, the entire text is available for online reading through our e-reader. Our site is not responsible for the performance of third-party products (sites).
Write Review:
User Reviews: