Timeline Conundrums

The most obvious answer would be the beginning, right?

Wrong.

I mean, where even is the beginning? With the exception of The Lion King, stories rarely start at their true beginning, because their true beginning would be the literal birth of the main characters.

As I have mentioned in earlier blogs, today’s reader doesn’t want to be lowered gently into the story. They want to be plunged into the midst of a mystery, drama, or tragedy. They need something that incites questions and drives them forward, hungry for answers.

But where does that leave us as writers? It leaves us walking a precarious line between delivering just enough, too much, or too little of a backstory.

Although very little background may be necessary for the first chapter, it would be counter productive to have a phenomenal, awe-inspiring start only for the ensuing chapters to act as a huge disappointment in comparison.

Imagine being on a roller coaster where the first incline is fast and the first drop thrilling. Your anticipation as the rider is that the momentum will continue with the promise of speed, of loops, and of even bigger drops. Imagine then your disappointment if the ride suddenly stops dead before it has barely begun. If it remains stationary as precious minutes ticked by and your adrenaline ebbs away. Would you even want to continue?

Yes, backstory is necessary. But not if it disrupts the pace of the story.

Writers often mistakenly assume that the reader must be provided with extensive background information before the story can be understood. While there are instances where such context is necessary, this is more the exception than the rule. In many cases, excessive exposition results in the reader becoming disengaged, as the narrative momentum is stalled by an overabundance of preliminary detail.

Opening a story with extensive descriptions of the setting, the protagonist, and their ordinary life, without introducing any form of conflict, is unlikely to engage the interest of most readers. In short, the story should not only just be beginning twenty to thirty pages in. While it is essential to exercise caution with a backstory to prevent disrupting the narrative flow, incorporating at least some context can significantly enhance a story. Thoughtfully integrated background information can provide depth to characters, establish motivations, and enrich the setting, allowing readers to engage more fully with the plot and its developments. A good backstory lets readers see a character’s struggles and emotions, revealing what drives them. It often shapes their pain and motivation, making it easier to understand the choices they make.

I know what you’re thinking, completely contradictory. How do you start a story in the midst of an inciting incident and then maintain the fast flow, and yet also provide an adequate backstory? Not to mention where and how that would even fit in.

The objective should not be to insert backstory whenever it appears that readers might “need” additional context. Rather, the key principle for incorporating any form of backstory is ensuring that the information is directly pertinent to the unfolding events and contributes meaningfully to the readers’ comprehension of the narrative. Or, in laymen’s terms one should only share a backstory when it gives the reader the context they need to understand a character’s present choices and emotions. For example, if a character's reaction seems disproportionate to the current situation, or when a specific event triggers a memory that explains their motivations then an explanation may be necessary.

It is important to remember that the whole backstory does not need to be shared at one time. It can be shared in pieces, spread out over an extended timeline. The ‘when’ driven by the present circumstances.

And remember, quality over quantity. In everyday writing, we might hint at a backstory with just a phrase or short paragraph. Instead of laying out every detail of a character’s past, we can drop a subtle clue - just enough for readers to get the idea.

Although this may work well for some situations, sometimes it may be necessary to provide a greater explanation. In such a case, instead of forcing a way to share the information in the current story, like having the character explain a past event to someone else, we might choose to show readers the event directly through a flashback.

A flashback provides the opportunity to present several paragraphs, or even an entire scene, to depict a past event through vivid description and action rather than simply narrating it. The reader is shown rather than told about past events.

If readers need to know parts of the past to understand the present, we should stick to our usual backstory techniques, like using hints, brief phrases, or having characters share stories. However, to employ standard showing techniques in order to convey a specific past event to readers and to foster a deeply immersive point of view (POV) experience, incorporating a flashback can be an effective narrative device.

The most important aspect is to hold off on revealing the backstory until you reach a moment when it becomes essential for readers to know it in order to fully grasp and follow the main storyline.