The Story on Backstory: Getting the Beginning Right

I know a lot of writers, and all of them enjoy writing a good tragic backstory. Of course, most of the writers I know also enjoy writing torture scenes, love triangles, and other sources of pain for the characters (and reader). But backstory, as fun as it may be for the writer, can often fail the reader. So the big question is, how does one do backstory right?

First, what is backstory? Simply put, it's anything that happened before the story began. This could be last week's barbecue or your MC's entire childhood. Every story has the potential for almost infinite backstory, though rarely do the readers learn all of it (or the writer, for that matter). Generally, extensive (read: Tolkien-sized) backstory is only necessary for sci-fi and fantasy stories, where the readers know very little about the story's world and its history to begin with.

Almost every story requires backstory. Conflict doesn't come out of nowhere. Characters without pasts aren't relatable. Somehow everything in the story's world (be it Earth, Middle-Earth, or a galaxy far, far away) got to where it is now, at the story's beginning. To write backstory, first ask yourself when and where the story begins. (Where a story should begin is another question altogether.) Now you know where the backstory ends.

Now, work backwards. How did the MC get where he is today? Why is he interesting? Why should anyone care about him? Some of this will be developed throughout the story proper, but right now your reader is on page one, wondering if they should buy your book and bring it home.

ALL-CAPS PSA: THIS IS UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES AN EXCUSE TO BACKSTORY DUMP IN THE BEGINNING--OR EVER, FOR THAT MATTER.

Just give your readers something to be curious about--give them questions, not answers. Here's a few quick ideas on how to do that:

• If you start in the middle of some action (be it a basketball game or a jewel heist)... show your character's thoughts and actions with no context as to what they're doing, or at least why they're doing it. Make your reader wonder how the character got there.
• If you start with description (of a place, a season, or whatever)... add an odd detail that only your character would notice or care about that has to do with the backstory. This is useful foreshadowing for a later reveal of backstory.
• If you start with dialogue... then you'll have to prove you deserve that dialogue. Most editors advise you don't begin with someone speaking, because we have no reason to care about a speaker we don't know. So make the dialogue interesting, relevant, and revealing. Interesting: not cliche. Don't start with someone yelling "look out!" or the like. Make it something your readers haven't heard before. Relevant: it should be important to the story, at least in a small way. It's the first line of your story, after all, and sets the tone for the rest of the book. Revealing: it should tell a little something about whoever is speaking. What kind of person are they? What is important to them? How do they treat others?

So that's how backstory begins. Come back next time for another post about how to make the middle work.