5 Ways to Find the Backstory Readers Want to Know

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Readers don’t mind backstory—as long as it’s something they want to hear about.

The first novel I ever wrote was fantasy, so naturally, it had a lot of backstory. Every character had huge histories and shady pasts, and I couldn’t wait to share every last detail with my readers.

And it turned out about how you’d imagine.

Boring pages, no action, flashbacks that nobody but me cared about. It was a mess.

A person’s past is part of life, and everybody has one—especially fictional characters. But that past isn't always relevant, even if it is interesting. Stopping to explain a character's history tends to bog a novel down.

Too much backstory is also high of the list of why an agent rejects a manuscript, and many advise cutting all backstory from the first 50 pages.

A bit extreme, sure, but more times than not, the backstory hurts rather than helps a story. But with a little forethought and revision, (okay, sometimes a lot of revision) you can make your backstory flow seamlessly with the rest of your prose.

The right amount of backstory can make readers fall in love with your characters.

Problem is, the wrong amount can send readers running, because they don’t want to know all this information. It gets in the way of the story, drags down the plot, and even gives away the very reasons want to read the novel.

Here are five ways to determine what backstory readers want to know:

1. Read your character’s diary.

Figuratively speaking. Think about what the character might write if they kept a diary or journal. The diary tells you what’s really on their minds and what they’re thinking about right now. That way, you aren’t tempted to throw in everything you know about them into the story as soon as it opens.

How many times during your day do you think about your past out of the blue? Or bring up painful topics you’re trying hard to avoid? Odds are not very often, but bad backstory has characters doing it all the time.

The diary trick helps avoid this. You’ll understand what that character would truly think about and share at that moment. You’ll be able to see life as they do and include only what’s relevant to that scene. Unless something happened to trigger that memory, they're more likely to go about their day doing what they do.

(Here’s more on Why Ask Why? Because Your Readers Will) 

2. Follow the “When I want your opinion I’ll ask for it” rule.

Readers don't want to know everything about a character's past right away—especially when it gives away the story. Tell them too much too soon, and there's nothing for them to discover as the story unfolds. That equals a boring novel, and who wants that?

Readers want to be surprised. They want to wonder why, for example, your protagonist is scared of bright sunlight (when he's clearly not a vampire, of course). The mystery helps hook them and keeps them reading to find out. Don’t share those tidbits until readers are begging for then.

(Here’s more on Message for M. Reader: Are You Telegraphing Your Plot?) 

3. Hide it around the house.

Backgrounding is a great way to deal with backstory. You might want to tell readers about the terrible past of your protagonist, or how he spent nine years underground in a Boramese prison, but instead of blurting it out (or worse, shoving in it somewhere it doesn't really fit), think of the things that might have affected your protagonist because of that experience.

• How might that change his behavior in the scene? 
• Is he extra sensitive to the light?
• Claustrophobic?
• Very good at getting around when he can't see well?

By backgrounding your backstory, you can drop clues about your characters and show their history without stopping the story to explain it. Better still, you leave enough tantalizing hints that readers eventually want to know the whole story.

(Here’s more on Revealing a Character's Past Without Falling Into Backstory) 

4. Have some compassion for the poor dear.

Backstory isn't just about the character's history—it's about the experiences that shaped their life and make them act the way they do. Some of it is probably painful, and not information they’d want you sharing with total strangers.

Be choosy about the secrets you tell. Any backstory that influences motivation is a natural fit, because that past is actively affecting how the character behaves in the current story. That past is driving them to act, not just “terrible events in their past.” Pick what's important both to the character and to the story itself.

(Here’s more on Sprinkling Seeds of Backstory: How This Writing Faux Pas Can Work In Your Story) 

5. Mine their emotional pain.

Of course, sometimes we want to tear open their emotional wounds and pass them around for our entertainment (that’s just good writing). The worst days of a character’s life are probably the very things that are going to make resolving the novel’s problem that much harder to do.

They’re also the moments that can make readers connect to the character, and sympathize with them. They’ll emotionally invest in both story and character, and care what happens.

(Here’s more on Brainstorming Your Character's Emotional Wound) 

Bonus Tips: To determine what backstory to use, ask:

How does it affect the current scene goal? This can help you decide what aspects of your backstory to reveal to your readers. The bits that actually matter, not the full history that doesn't advance the story.

Were any of the scene's characters involved? If so, what was their role? How do they feel about it now? How does it motivate their actions and choices now? If they're not playing a role in the scene, why add backstory about them?

How does the point of view character feel about it? If your point of view character wasn't involved (or didn't know about it) odds are they're trying to figure it out in some way. That might even be the goal of the book or a subplot. What do they know? What do they think they know, but have wrong? What parts are they trying to solve? What might they uncover unexpectedly?

One last bonus tip: Ignore backstory during the first draft. Stick to the story at hand, and after it's done, go back and read your scenes. Ask yourself: Does it make sense as is, or is more information needed to understand what's going on in that scene? This is key. It might be good information, or important information, but if it doesn't help that scene, save it for later. You don't have to tell it all at once.

On the flip side, you can also add as much backstory as you want so you understand it all, and trim it down later. Sometimes you need to write out a character’s past to figure them out, and you don’t truly know them until you do.

(Here’s more on http://blog.janicehardy.com/2017/11/brainstorming-your-characters-emotional.html) 

Backstory can be a vital part of your novel—if you make it serve the story and the character.

Backstory gets a bad rap, but when you think about it, it's the motivating factor behind your characters, and characters are what drives your story. That backstory helps you create rich and proactive characters.

EXERCISE FOR YOU: Think about your characters and why they behave the way they do in the novel. Do their actions come from real motivations created by past experiences, or are they just doing what the plot says they should? If you find weak motivations, add some backstory to the character and flesh them out so their motives come from a real place. Then decide how much (if any) of that backstory needs to go into the novel.

How much backstory do you write in a first draft? Do you figure it out as you go along, or plan it beforehand?

*Originally published March 2012. Last updated November 2020.

Find out more about characters, internalization, and point of view in my book, Fixing Your Character & Point-of-View Problems.

Go step-by-step through revising character and character-related issues, such as two-dimensional characters, inconsistent points of view, too-much backstory, stale dialogue, didactic internalization, and lack of voice. Learn how to analyze your draft, spot any problems or weak areas, and fix those problems.

With clear and easy-to-understand examples, Fixing Your Character & Point-of-View Problems offers five self-guided workshops that target the common issues that make readers stop reading. It will help you:

• Flesh out weak characters and build strong character arcs
• Find the right amount of backstory to enhance, not bog down, your story
• Determine the best point(s) of view and how to use them to your advantage
• Eliminate empty dialogue and rambling internalization
• Develop character voices and craft unique, individual characters 

Fixing Your Character & Point-of-View Problems starts every workshop with an analysis to pinpoint problem areas and offers multiple revision options in each area. You choose the options that best fit your writing process. It's an easy-to-follow guide to crafting compelling characters, solid points of view, and strong character voices readers will love.

Available in paperback and ebook formats.

Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, including The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. The Shifter, was chosen for the 2014 list of "Ten Books All Young Georgians Should Read" from the Georgia Center for the Book.

She also writes the Grace Harper urban fantasy series for adults under the name, J.T. Hardy.

When she's not writing novels, she's teaching other writers how to improve their craft. She's the founder of Fiction University and has written multiple books on writing.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Indie Bound