Yikes!

This shoe brings up all kinds of emotion! Mostly fear. Not only of the thing inside it, but the height of that heel! Yeesh! I'd break my neck if I tried to wear that thing. I'm sure there would be a time and place where one might wear such a thing. Take a Halloween costume party for example.

Just like there is an appropriate time and place for shoes to be worn, there is also an appropriate time and place where backstory should be inserted. Instead of getting into all the places it doesn't belong right now (we'll get to that later), I'd like to discuss where it does belong.

Darcy Pattison explains it well here. She says that backstory is there to add emotional weight to the story. It can strengthen characters' motivations and make events mean more. She states that backstory should be put exactly where it impacts the emotional weight of the story.

Like the idea of using backstory to "hook" the reader, the idea of using it to heighten emotion is not so much a rule as a logical guideline. It makes sense to me. Does it make sense to you?

I'll be back next week for more on the topic of backstory. Until then, have a great weekend!

Okay, so maybe I was wrong...

Apparently there IS black and white in fiction writing. Well, not exactly, but I did find it interesting that shortly after I wrote my last post about how there was no black and white in writing, I came across this post by Jeannette Cezanne on the Beyond The Elements of Style blog. If you happen to click over, you'll read all about black and white in her sidebar.

Anyway, Jeannette's post has nothing to do with black and white. It's about backstory. It's short and does not give a lot of information, but it does mimic a comment from one of my readers, Angela Ackerman, on my initial post on backstory. Here's what Angela has to say about backstory:

I think the trick with backstory is to look at it as .
'hooks'. Dole out tiny bits that get the reader asking more questions and make them intrigued enough to keep reading.

Backstory also has to tie into the current action. For example, the backstory event in my books opening is that the mc recently had a drowning accident. How can I get this info out without a ton of pace killing telling? Make her first scene in a bathroom with her little brother, attending a toilet send off for his beloved fish. The dead fish in the water is a natural trigger for her to relive what happened to her, and so when it comes out, it isn't dumpy, but hooks the reader along to find out what exactly happened.

This comment made perfect sense to me. Backstory should be there to draw the reader in, not push them out of the story. When put that way, I do think there is some black and white truth to this. It's not exactly a rule. It's a logical guideline. Every writer wants to draw the reader in. Looking at backstory as "hooks" as Angela said, can help you to include it at the right time in the right amount. Jeannette's post that I mentioned at the beginning here, says almost the exact same thing.

So, do you have any examples of backstory hooks?

The Consensus is...

First, let me say that I'm thrilled with the response to my last post on back story. Not because you told me what I wanted to hear, but because so many weighed in on the discussion. In case you missed it, I posed the question: What is the deal with back story? It seems the majority of you think back story is fine (even a good thing) in small doses. You can read the post and the comments here.

Now, you may be wondering what today's picture has to do with back story. Well, it really doesn't. I chose this picture today because the thing that thrilled me most about the comments on my last post was that they renewed my excitement about blogging. They reminded me that I am not alone in this journey to publication. Sure...some of you are already published or at the very least a few steps ahead of me on the journey. Others are a few steps behind. And we may or may not be following the same path. But we are all walking in the same direction.

Most of you know that my paying gig is as a contract Accountant. I even posted about how the left and right sides of my brain battle against each other. I enjoy both crunching numbers and writing, but sometimes, numbers feel safer. You know why? Because there is a definite answer in numbers. There is a definite right way to do things. There is no gray area. Okay, sometimes there are loopholes or exceptions, and some might exercise a certain level of creativity (for lack of a better word) to save on taxes, etc. But for the most part, Accounting is a black and white process. Writing on the other hand, is mostly a gray area. There are so many different opinions out there about the "right" way to do things that it's hard to know which direction you should go in. Blogging provides a forum for discussions on these gray area topics. That's one of the reasons I spend so much time doing it.

So, I thank you all for your openness to express your opinions about these topics. It's like our own little pool of research participants.

Anyway, returning to back story... I have done quite a bit of research on the subject over the last several days, and I thought I'd share with you what I've found in my next few posts. But, as with everything else in this business, remember that what I share with you will purely be industry professionals' opinions. Remember...there is no black and white when it comes to writing.