Layering in Backstory - Hallie Ephron

Backstory – Hallie Ephron
2010 Willamette Writers Conference

Note - She says two most common mistakes for first-time authors:
1) Backstory
2) POV

Where you start your novel

Go forwards and backwards.

Histories:
1) Place
2) Particular protagonist
a) Many times protagonist does something that surprises you.
a. Stop when that happens. Something made them do that.
b. Stop and go with it. See where it goes. Pause and think.
i. What in past would make them do that?
1. (Better if readers don’t know).
2. Reveal it later – don’t tell it all at once.

ii. Can also acknowledge surprises through dialog of other characters
Backstory

1) Character’s family history
2) Formulate events in character’s life
a. Find formative events
i. Past traumas
3) Who character is and who they always wanted to be
a. More interesting if there is a disconnect
4) Reputation
a. From backstory
i. Disconnect good
5) Lifetime Achievement
a. Dream
i. What they’re aiming for
6) Mistakes, regrets
7) Education
8) Romances
(Author needs to know all of this – reader just some)


How to create whole world around characters (All doesn’t go into novels)
Some writers develop backstory and characters as they go.
Best (at least for me – Dave), do first – ahead of time
Feed in backstory as we need to know it and when we need to know it



Challenge:
Where beginning is – where to start
Wrong place -> will end up jumping back and forth
No magic answer as where to start and end
Start as late as possible
And where characters are most interesting

Rule:
Hold backstory until novel launches.
And until readers like the characters.
Feed in backstory when it resonates with the present.


Ways to tell backstory

Omniscient – Telling – Author/Narrator
Like a news bulletin
(Can put a very small amount in this way)
Small amount of it in small pieces consistently over novel
Beginning of scenes

POV Character:
Early
2nd or 3rd page
(Eg. “My name is”)

Slip backstory in:
Internal Dialog
Early in book – tells who character is
Can use italics here.
Instead of, “I thought”.

3rd Person Narrator:
Boring unless reader is interested in this

Slip backstory into dialog
Good dialog better than exposition
Can also acknowledge surprises through dialog of other characters

Props
Don’t explain
Let reader interpret them
Especially when at odds with what character has seemed like before

Main Character – POV:
Memories
Most important way to give backstory
What does it mean?
Often don’t know
Can mean a lot of things
Can be interpreted right or wrong way
Main Characters memorie triggered
Little flash of backstory
And then back to present
Have to hook all memories to present scene
Memories also tell of protagonist character
Memories need a trigger
Small – just a few lines
(Many ways – experiment with – what’s best for you)


Aside: Most little things should not be explained
Only explain things that are important.

Aside: Every scene in novel, setting and character filtered through POV character to reader
When it becomes part of the novel.


Extended flashbacks: (Longer)

Like a scene within a scene.
Go into and back out in same scene.
Do when really important

Can set up with small flashbacks. (Tease reader)
Then give extended flashback.
Dramatic
Also pulls reader out of novel.
Has to be right time for biggest things – most important things
Can be confusing when done wrong
No italics.


Technique

Segue into it (segue? Definition?)
Flashback written as in the present -> then segue ou
Go into past perfect.
To show we’re in the past.
Then drop past perfect. (Past perfect gets annoying)
End of flashback
Back to present
Use “hads” again (past perfect?) ((Twice with past perfect?))
Then back to present
Other than going in and out – same as any other scene

(Present -> Past Perfect -> Past -> Past Perfect -> Present)


Example: FCD - Tinder – Backstory

Father a murderer
Grew up as a slave
(Obvious – no need to tell)
Grew up an orphan
(Show not tell)
Koop is his adopted uncle
Koop and Tinder caught by slavers
(Don’t tell – reader will find out anyway)
Tinder wants to be special
Tinder big for age, exceptionally strong
Put in mine at an earlier age than his peers
Tinder never knew his mother
Tinder’s father escaped to Galt
Tinder’s father stole Black Bloodstone
Tinder’s father abandoned Tinder

All needed in book: Different ways to tell and show.
We need to know all.

Aside: In general, we need to know birth order of characters too.


What you want your readers to know:

If important to plot, must be relevant
If not, maybe not
Author needs to see things from character’s POV
Backstory can be main thing readers discover
Partly depends on how you reveal the flashback.
Don’t want a narrative info dump.
Backstory for lesser characters too:
But much of it only the author knows
Big pieces of backstory that author needs to reveal.
Don’t give backstory irrelevant to story.

Give characters long histories
Character sketches a good way to do this
Stuff you won’t tell reader
Make up stuff
Make up stories
When a character does something that surprises reader (and you)
May need to go back to sketches and add or change
Recommends story sketches, character sketches and setting sketches
Good way to get going.
But don’t update.

Aside: Don’t base characters on real people that anyone can recognize -> can be sued. Can amalgamate from multiple people in life though. Fiction not same as reality – Make up your own characters better.
(Can write about dead people and public figures however).

Aside: Reality is no excuse – Things that are unexplainable in life will be unexplainable in fiction too.

Advice: Don’t kill yourself over sketches in first draft. Instead, add changes to outline later. Use for revising. Don’t kill self at beginning.
Characters will change as you write. Will have to go back later and make consistent with beginning anyway.

Note: Don’t use italics for emphasis. (For example, exclamation points – in general, exclamation points bad – especially if you use many of them –((agents/editors don’t like)) ) There is no problem with different fonts however.


Exercise:

Create 10 backstory incidents.
Put in order of most dramatic to least.
Figure out what to reveal.
Then reveal it.
External flashbacks.
Short Flashbacks
Props
Narration
Documents
Will, diary, journal, contract, sermon, eulogy, epitaphs on gravestones, newspaper articles, newspaper obituaries – etc.