Romantic Baggage: Dealing With Backstory

iUniverse Christian Writers Chat

AnnieM: Lord, thank you for taking care of the little details of our lives. Thank you for getting Gail online, and bless her husband for his help. Bless each participant tonight. Guide and guard our conversation and help us be better writers for you. In Jesus' name, Amen!

Marcia: Amen! (And please keep us all online throughout the chat)

AnnieM: I’m pleased to introduce Gail Martin as our workshop leader tonight. She is the author of 8 novels, 5 novellas, and 14 church resource books. Gail, thank you so much for coming. The floor is yours.

Gail Martin: I thought tonight we'd talk about backstory. I think it's one of the most difficult things to work with in a story - and I'd like to offer some tips and ideas how to handle it. Then I'll open it up to questions.

In fiction, every issue within the hero’s and heroine’s past is often that "unwanted baggage" that causes them to fear commitment, reject love, distrust individuals, or a multitude of other problems that create the story’s major conflicts. No matter what past event--a difficult childhood or a dark secret, BACKSTORY creates motivation, goals and conflict for the main characters.

Backstory is all of the action that occurred in the characters past before the story begins. It includes the individuals’ relationships, health, education, upbringing, failures, successes, romantic experiences, and Christian background. Just like our own lives, these details mold the character into an individual with certain traits and attitudes.

Creating well-developed lives for main characters helps to shape the characters present and future-- So author’s fill out character sheets, interview their imaginary hero and heroine, write biographical sketches, or a variety of methods to get to know their characters. This information is used to create believable, realistic individuals with whom the reader will relate. It will give characters’ rational behavior, showing their fears, perceptions, and attitudes. Warning - not all backstory information is presented to the reader, but it is used by the author to bring about credible actions and reactions as the story progresses.

Here’s something that’s important. Sol Stein, in Stein On Writing (St. Martin Press, 1995), says that today’s readers are influenced by the full immediate scenes of television and movies and become easily bored with narrative summary, which includes backstory. Readers no longer want to plow through lengthy descriptions of scenery or a character’s past. They want ACTION. Stein tells the writer to imagine going to a play and watching scenery with no actors. Instead the audience hears voices and sounds coming from off stage. The audience is restless and leaves the theater. In the case of a novel, the reader tosses the book in the "circular file."

Now, think about your own writing. Do you start your novel with action? Do you have characters involved in a conflict within the first few pages? Stein says that you should.

So avoid presenting too much backstory too soon. Backstory is the subtle "seasoning" of a story. It brings out the nuances and flavors that help to create a delicious blend of action-packed motivation and conflict between the hero and heroine. Dumping all of the characters’ pasts into the novel in the first pages is like emptying a saltshaker into the soup.

Now before I go on, how many of you have had trouble with backstory? What are some of the things that you've done to deal with it?

AnnieM: I interview my characters.

Gail Martin: That's to gather info, right?

AnnieM: yes.

Gail Martin: Putting it into the story is where we sometimes go astray. Here's something to think about. Use only what's absolutely necessary and exactly at the right time.

Gail S. I've never had trouble with backstory. Everything I put into a novel is deleted unless it has a direct correlation to the plot. So that is one way to know if it shouldn't be there. :)

Gail Martin: Yes - that's what you need to do.

Gail S. If it has nothing to do with the plot, delete it.

Gail Martin: Great! So what do you do?

Gail S. Only say what needs to be told at that moment. So as you know, my characters tend not to have a "lot" of emotional baggage to begin with, so I have very little backstory.

Gail Martin: First select only those pieces that make a major impact on the story. Your hero may have grown up in a small town, but that fact is not vital to the plot. Though your hero is a pilot, the writer need not expound upon the pilot's training and experience unless it affects the immediate action in the story. Present backstory only if it affects the scene.

Second, an author wants to present backstory in the most active method possible. Flashbacks work if the author is experienced and has the know-how, but a new author is safest by sharing the details in dialogue with another character or providing small pieces of information as internal thought.

Third, holding back and waiting until the right moment to provide past details or to foreshadow problems of the past can create suspense and surprise to the reader.

Let’s look at some examples: In my August 2001 Steeple Hill Love Inspired release, SECRETS OF THE HEART, the heroine’s past hits her as introspection in this opening scene when she meets the hero, her friend Phyllis’s brother.

What had caused her to sink into an abyss of miserable memories? The answer hit her before the question left her mind. Scott’s build. Not his near six-foot stature, but his broad, square frame like a football player. Thick neck, powerful chest, strong muscular legs, and bulging arms she saw wrapped around Phyllis. She cringed with her recollection.

This provides a hint of her past and creates suspense. Why were the memories miserable? Why did she cringe at the recollection? Backstory is more effective when the reader cares about the character. This is another reason to hold information back. In the same novel, midway in Chapter 2, the reader learns that she had a child when she was fifteen, fathered by a high school football player and that the baby was given for adoption. The only people who know her secret are her immediate family and she has hidden the information and allowed it to poison her life.

Dramatic conflict is created when the reader learns that the hero was an adopted child. From the hero’s POV, Scott noticed the startled, concerned expression on Kate’s face. Although he doesn’t understand it, the reader does and is concerned for her. Will Scott respect a woman who gave her child for adoption? Can Kate trust him enough to share her secret?

Later in the story, the conflict is expanded when Scott reveals his strong belief in chastity until marriage. Each piece of information about the hero adds to the growing conflict in the romantic relationship between the two characters who have grown to care deeply for each other.

Using backstory in this way can create a page-turner as readers who see the problem wonder what will happen next. It creates empathy from the reader. But another way to present backstory is to only hint at a problem.

In my novel, SECRETS WITHIN (which is presently a download or disk purchased at www.storybookseries.com), backstory is kept from the reader. Later it is revealed, but at first, it is a secret. When the hero and heroine first meet, the heroine asks him, "Tell me about you." Then this follows:

Her smirky smile tickled him, and for once he wished he could be honest and tell her about his life. But that wasn’t possible. He lifted his eyes to her hers, pushing the real Jeff back in the trunk and told her a mixture of truth and fiction.

So what is the truth and why can’t he tell her? I hope you can see how holding back the information can arouse curiosity and create a page-turner article.

Now do you have any questions about backstory--or about anything to do with writing or becoming published? Questions about agents, editors, relationships between the two, how it all works? Please feel free to jump in.

Gail Martin: Does anyone want to share a way you works with backstory or ask a question?

AnnieM: I find that backstory is vital to getting the story's plot.

Gail Martin: Backstory is the backbone of a story. It makes your characters who they are and creates their conflicts, and their motivation. If you don't have this you have nothing. We need to create real people with real flaws and real problems and that's what backstory can do. I use a form to fill out my backstory. I come from a counseling background.

Jane: Gail, do you have a set of concrete questions you use to 'interview' your characters in order to learn their personalities?

Gail Martin: Yes. I have a short sheet that I use to come up with pertinent info. I know that Anne uses the interview format and I've never used that.

Jane: Can you give an example of some of these questions? Perhaps you could send a copy to Annie to post later?

Gail Martin: Sure – I’d be happy to. What is his/her deepest desire? Deepest fear?

What are his/her strengths? Weaknesses? What type of childhood did he/she have?

What is the inciting incident? Greatest flaws? Greatest strengths? Greatest need or want (long range goal)? Dark secrets? Personality traits that are strengths or weaknesses that cause problems? Biggest regret? Most powerful dream? Darkest moment? What can renew their spirit? Etc. You get the point. It's only a short sheet and I also keep track of other things, too. But I find it very helpful to create backstory.

AnnieM: (great questions)

Gail S: Hmmm... I especially like the Etc. part....

Gail Martin: Etc. is always good.

Marcia: Any suggestion on expanding your character so she is not totally you? I realize that in part she is your experiences and dreams.

Gail Martin: Yes, my characters and yours are always a piece of us, but I use experience and people that I know, people who I worked with in counseling, their problems and reactions, and that helps me create unique people who are not me.

I think we can't help but put a little of ourselves in our characters, but I have had interesting things happen with reader mail. I have had readers assume that I had gone through the experience of my heroine because it seemed so real to them - but I didn't have any of those experiences.

I try to recreate in my mind using my own experiences how I would feel or react if the problem or conflict was mine.

AnnieM: Have you had any trouble getting your characters to cooperate with you?

Gail Martin: Oh, I think characters often stray. I have been amazed at times when my character does or says something that I hadn't thought about, but I let the line stay. Later on I often realize that it's a lead-in for something important, etc. I always figure that's when God took over! They do fight the author at times. Gets us in trouble.

Marcia: (I like your explanation, Gail)

Aisha: Annie will you post the Q&A sheet?

AnnieM: Yes, Aisha, I'll post the sheet on CWWC.

Gail Martin: Thanks for having me. I hope I said something meaningful.

AnnieM: You did. I appreciate you coming, GailM

Susie: You did great Gail, thanks!

Kate: Thank you Gail.

Gail Martin: Welcome. Okay - I'm back to work. No rest for the wicked.

Jane: Thanks Gail, it was a great chat

AnnieM: Thank you Gail. You done great.

Marcia: Thanks, Gail.

Gail Martin: Goodbye!