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Feb 19, 2024 · There are several different techniques you can use to convey backstory. Last year, I did a three-part series about backstory techniques. 1. Sharing Backstory With the Backstory Drip. The main one is the one you’re going to want to use in pretty much any story, even if you do choose to use some of the other techniques.
3. Make sure the backstory is relevant to the plot and character development. It should enhance the story and provide meaningful context, rather than serving as unrelated filler. 4. Instead of directly stating backstory, demonstrate it through characters’ actions and reactions. This approach can make the backstory more engaging and impactful.
Have too much backstory and too many flashbacks, you might rob your readers of the urgency and tension of the current narrative. For the most part, I much prefer to look forward in a story than ...
- When Backstory Works
- When Backstory Fails
- Balancing Backstory
I often joke that skillful writing techniques are a little bit like Supreme Justice Potter Stewart’s infamous 1964 opinion of pornography:You may not be able to define it, but you know it when you see it. But well-used backstory is often invisible, woven so seamlessly into the tapestry of the story that you don’t notice the individual threads. It c...
Walking the tightrope of balancing backstory is often unfortunately often weighted to one side—backstory traps are legion and easy to stumble into: 1. Frontloaded backstory:This is among the most common missteps I see with backstory—authors worry that readers won’t understand or invest in their characters and story without “bringing them up to spee...
I always suggest a few basic guidelines to make sure that the backstory you’re introducing feels organic and seamless to the story: 1. The Watergate question: This is my paraphrased version of the famed standard of guilt in the Nixon hearings:What do readers need to know and when do they need to know it? Successfully incorporating backstory means u...
Apr 24, 2023 · However, a linear approach to backstory can be used when the author recognizes the story’s proposed backstory is, in fact, important and interesting enough to become the front story. In this instance, the story opens with what would otherwise have been a historical event in the character’s past, which allows readers to experience the unfolding of events in “real time,” right alongside ...
Backstory: How to write backstory effectively. Backstory is important. Having the reader learn more about your character’s past can help them understand who they are and how they’ll react in certain situations. However, there’s a fine line between giving useful information to your reader and boring them to tears!
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Oct 10, 2023 · While some poems don’t use any rhyme at all, almost every piece of verse has a keen sense of rhythm. 2. Meter. Meter is the basic structure of a line of poetry, whereby stressed and unstressed syllables are used in a predetermined way to create rhythm. In a sense, it’s the heartbeat of a poem.
