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mary rosenblum
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Hello all!
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mary rosenblum
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I hope you had a good week!
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mary rosenblum
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This is our After Hours Forum,
with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor and we're talking about backstory.
I've published seven novels and more than 60 short stories and will do my
best to answer any questions you have. If you're new here, remember that you
need to click on the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next to
the red question mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a question.
Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and type your
question into the regular send bar if that works better for you..
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mary rosenblum
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I wanted to talk about
backstory today, because that tends to give novice writers a lot of
trouble.
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mary rosenblum
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You either end up with too
little backstory and your readers are confused...
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mary rosenblum
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or you end up with too much
and everybody falls asleep.
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mary rosenblum
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It's a VERY fine line to walk
in short fiction...
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mary rosenblum
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and even in novels, it's a
problem.
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wardg
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Is backstory only in third
person, like just narrating to the reader about what happened earlier?
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mary rosenblum
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No, it isn't, Ward.
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mary rosenblum
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And actually, most of the
time, you do NOT want it to sound like YOU the author telling the reader
what is going on.
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mary rosenblum
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The ideal is to slip it into
your story in bits and pieces so that the reader never notices that he/she
is acquiring a fund of...
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mary rosenblum
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knowlege about these people
and this universe.
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mary rosenblum
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The more you can follow that
fundamental 'show, don't tell' rule...
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mary rosenblum
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the better your backstory will
work.
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wardg
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So when my character remembers a
time in his childhood, and the reader is carried back to the event, that is
still backstory... but it can be too much info at once?
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mary rosenblum
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Yes and yes, Ward.
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mary rosenblum
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Yes, that memory of the childhood
picnic may offer the reader a lot of valuable..
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mary rosenblum
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insight into the MC's past.
That's a great way to do it, by the way.
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mary rosenblum
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You just don't want to spend
so much time remembering that past that the story flow stops cold.
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beirdd
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I've tried using flashbacks, but
maybe I saw too many episodes of "Kung Fu" when I was a kid,
because flashbacks get tiresome to me.
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mary rosenblum
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Oh, it's not just you,
beirdd...nearly all readers get tired of them very quickly.
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mary rosenblum
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A brief memory can be highly
useful, but too many lengthy flashbacks where we actually enter the
scene...
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mary rosenblum
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can be difficult to pull off
effectively.
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gwanny
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Is it best to use dialogue, let
the character tell the backstory?
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mary rosenblum
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That's another effective tool,
gwanny.
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mary rosenblum
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There is no ONE way to do
backstory, and you should make use of a variety of methods...
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mary rosenblum
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to slip your backstory in as
many small bites of information...
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mary rosenblum
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rather than choking your
reader with that entire 'watermelon' of backstory.
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aulait
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What technique is best for
introducing backstory...a dream, conversation?
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mary rosenblum
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All of the above, aulait. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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A dream. A conversation with
another character, or an overheard conversation.
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mary rosenblum
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A memory.
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mary rosenblum
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An old letter.
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mary rosenblum
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A scene or item that evokes
something from the past.
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mary rosenblum
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The big mistake that most
novices make is to try...
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mary rosenblum
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and give the reader ALL the
backstory right away.
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mary rosenblum
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They feel that the reader has
to know all about this character in order to understand what is going on...
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mary rosenblum
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so they dump a page or two of
'my character's history' into the start of the story...
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mary rosenblum
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and that story bogs down in
the mud.
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mary rosenblum
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What you will come to learn,
as you get more and more reader feedback...
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mary rosenblum
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is that readers need very few
clues in order to guess at the larger picture.
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aulait
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I've read books where the
chapters are divided. One is present time and then the next in the past. Is
this acceptable?
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mary rosenblum
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Anything is acceptable if it
works, aulait. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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That sounds like a parallel
plot construction to me...
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mary rosenblum
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where two separate stories are
told seperately, converging at the end.
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wardg
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so giving backstory in small
chunks can add a sense of mystery to any story in any genre? keep the
reader guessing but not confused...
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mary rosenblum
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Yes, exactly.
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mary rosenblum
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We like to be curious. We are
curious species.
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mary rosenblum
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Hand your reader puzzle pieces
and let them put the picture together.
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mary rosenblum
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Why do you think jigsaw
puzzles are so popular?
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mary rosenblum
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It's much more fun than
sitting through a short course in the character's life story. Boring.
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mary rosenblum
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This is our After Hours Forum,
with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor and we're talking about backstory.
I've published seven novels and more than 60 short stories and will do my
best to answer any questions you have. If you're new here, remember that
you need to click on the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next
to the red question mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a
question. Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and
type your question into the regular send bar if that works better for you..
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whistlin_smithy
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Hi Mary. Would you say the
method of backstory introduction may be dependent somewhat on the POV, as
well as style, and even possibly, genre?
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mary rosenblum
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Absolutely. There is no one
method of introducing backstory.
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mary rosenblum
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It has to suit the story.
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mary rosenblum
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If you're writing in first
person, your POV character is going to have to tell us.
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mary rosenblum
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If she's very chatty, that's
not a problem.
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mary rosenblum
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If this is a hardboiled PI who
doesn't talk much, you're going to have less latitude to give the
readers...
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mary rosenblum
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his personal history.
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mary rosenblum
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If you start your story with
the characters running for their lives...you're going to have to wait...
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mary rosenblum
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to give us much backstory.
They're too busy saving their skins right now.
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aulait
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When a story is told in first
person is backstory harder to achieve?
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mary rosenblum
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It can be, just as giving the
POV character's name to the reader can be a challenge. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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Depends on your character.
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mary rosenblum
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If she's very private and
doesn't like to think about her past much,and never talks about it...
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mary rosenblum
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you're going to have to work
hard.
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mary rosenblum
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If she's the town
gossip..probably going to be easy!
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wardg
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didn't adams use the
hitchhiker's guide itself as a convenient crutch to give backstory?
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mary rosenblum
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Yep, that's exacytly what he
did. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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I've seen some SF stories
where an encyclopedia or log entry adds backstory .
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mary rosenblum
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That was the case in Frank
Herbert's Dune.
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mary rosenblum
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It had encyclopedia entries
that added to the complex backstory of his universe.
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gwanny
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I have trouble deciding what the
reader "assumes" and what I should show...regarding backstory
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mary rosenblum
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Everyone does at first,
gwanny, and even for writers with more experience, like myself,...
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mary rosenblum
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it's still trickly. Nearly all
of us rely on readers to tell us if we have it 'all there' before we
publish work.
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mary rosenblum
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Essentially, you create an
iceberg of information about your world and your characters.
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mary rosenblum
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But only the tip of the
iceberg shows in your story.
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mary rosenblum
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Yes, all that lovely
information sure adds to what we know about your world...
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mary rosenblum
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but it also steamrollers your
plot and the story becomes a giant lecture.
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wardg
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It's amazing how one drill core
thru an iceberg can illuminate so many layers... hint hint.
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mary rosenblum
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Oh it does indeed, ward. :-)
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aulait
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Shouldn't most writers have
someone else read the finished manuscript to catch anything that is left
out or confusing?
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mary rosenblum
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Personally, I think it's a
very good idea.
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mary rosenblum
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I'd be more likely to go
grocery shopping without my clothes than to send off a story that hadn't
been read by two or three readers.
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mary rosenblum
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But I do know a couple of pros
who simply cannot let anyone see their work before they submit it.
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mary rosenblum
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I really mean a couple...like
2.
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mary rosenblum
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That's the exception, rather
than the rule.
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mary rosenblum
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If you're going to do well in
the biz of publishing, you're going to get used to people commenting on
what you write! :-)
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mary rosenblum
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And those comments BEFORE you
publish are much more useful than comments AFTER you publish.
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jmr
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So... add just enough backstory
to answer the questions the reader might have NOW at this particular point
in the story and clear up any confusion that would result if the backstory
were not there?
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mary rosenblum
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That's it exactly, jmr.
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mary rosenblum
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As you write a scene, starting
with scene one, ask yourself...does my reader HAVE to know this now?
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mary rosenblum
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And if the answer is no...take
it out.
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mary rosenblum
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Slip it in later.
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aulait
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Have you ever published
something, especially when you were a novice, that you wish you had worked
on more?
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mary rosenblum
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Well, I could always find ways
to do things differently in stories that have been published, aulait, but I
just don't do that. Why?
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mary rosenblum
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I'd rather write something
new.
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mary rosenblum
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I've never published anything
that I didn't feel was finished.
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info
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Still, don't you want one or two
little questions left unanwsered with a hint of a promise to answer it over
the next few pages or chapters? You know, to keep the reader reading or do
you come up with some new little thing to do that?
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mary rosenblum
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Exactly, info, and if you only
include the info that the reader MUST have in THIS scene, you will be
adding backstory right up to your climax.
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mary rosenblum
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There is a point, I have
discovered, where you have finished with your backstory.
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mary rosenblum
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I can always feel it when I
get there.
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mary rosenblum
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All the backstory is in place,
the reader has all the puzzle pieces...
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mary rosenblum
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and from here on the story
plays out to its end without any more backstory additions.
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jmr
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What you could have done
differently could always become a new story...
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mary rosenblum
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Yep.
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mary rosenblum
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A lot of my stories get
republished over and over in anthologies...
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mary rosenblum
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so I have the option of
revising if I want to. So far haven't done it.
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wardg
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My guinea pig readers often find
that I assume too much about the reader and not give pertinent puzzle
pieces; are there any tricks I can use to avoid that?
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mary rosenblum
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Sure, Ward.
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mary rosenblum
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Ask yourself 'what MUST my
character know in order for this scene to make sense."
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mary rosenblum
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Since you're on the 'not
enough' end of the spectrum, you probably won't end up taking stuff out...
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mary rosenblum
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but instead may have to go
back and plant needed details.
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mary rosenblum
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For example, if our knight
meets a stranger in the forest and instantly attacks him, (and the knight
is our good guy, POV)...
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mary rosenblum
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what do we need to know? We
need to know...
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mary rosenblum
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why he attacked this stranger.
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mary rosenblum
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So we go back and plant the
backstory about this evil lord who killed his family...
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mary rosenblum
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and now he attacks any knight
who supports this evil lord.
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mary rosenblum
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Then, when he charges this
stranger, we recognize the insignia on his shield and know why our 'good
guy' is doing this.
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mary rosenblum
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But we do not need to know
HERE all the details about his childhood or WHY the evil lord killed his
family or anything else about his past...
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mary rosenblum
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for that matter, except that
one bit of information.
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wardg
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or we could plant a few
alternative details to keep the reader guessing a bit about whether it's
because of the evil lord or maybe a bar fight or a love triangle, etc.
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mary rosenblum
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Well it depends on your story
and what you are trying to do, ward.
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mary rosenblum
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If our MC acts like a thug,
you lose reader empathy. We don't like him much.
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mary rosenblum
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If we understand why he's
acting like a thug, or even guess that there is a good reason for it, we
won't dislike him.
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mary rosenblum
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Here, for example, you might
have our nice, sympathetic character...
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mary rosenblum
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kill this stranger. He might
even be unarmed and seem harmless...
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mary rosenblum
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and we are SHOCKED. We liked
this guy!
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mary rosenblum
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But then he might say
something like...'that's for my little sister and our parents'...
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mary rosenblum
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and we'll guess that maybe
he's not just acting outrageously.
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mary rosenblum
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And we'll reserve judgement.
And later find out about his family...
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mary rosenblum
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and that these people are
wizards who don't need to carry arms...
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mary rosenblum
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And that single clue...his
words...
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mary rosenblum
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cue us to wait and see, don't
jump to conclusions yet.
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gwanny
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or, the knight could tell the
guy why he is going to kill him, while holding a knife to the guys throat.
"I want you to know why you are about to die"?
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mary rosenblum
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Weeelllll yeah, but you know
what, gwanny? You better work hard at making it plausible.
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mary rosenblum
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It's a whole lot safer to kill
someone who might well kill you than to launch into a soliloquy. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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You can do it, but you do need
to work a bit to make it seem like a realistic behavior.
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wardg
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my name is inigo montoya. you
keeled my father. prepare to die. heh
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mary rosenblum
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Exactly, ward. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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If you've seen it on late
night reruns, don't DO it.
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mary rosenblum
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This is our After Hours Forum,
with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor and we're talking about backstory.
I've published seven novels and more than 60 short stories and will do my best
to answer any questions you have. If you're new here, remember that you
need to click on the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next to
the red question mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a question.
Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and type your
question into the regular send bar if that works better for you..
|
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aulait
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When writing a series is there
backstory that would be repeated in each of the series books?
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mary rosenblum
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Oh yeh, aulait.
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mary rosenblum
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Series books are a BIG
headache that way.
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mary rosenblum
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Even my mystery series, where
I didn't have to create a universe each time was hard.
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mary rosenblum
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Your regular readers know this
stuf.
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mary rosenblum
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Your new readers need this
stuff.
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mary rosenblum
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And you have to balance that.
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mary rosenblum
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Marion Zimmer Bradley had a
unique method that actually worked for her.
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mary rosenblum
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In her fantasy series, she
simply started each one with the same solid chapter of backstory.
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mary rosenblum
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I mean EXACT.
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mary rosenblum
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If you were a regular reader,
you skipped it and the plot started in chapter two.
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mary rosenblum
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If you were new, you read it
find out about the character and world.
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mary rosenblum
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It was narrataive and nothing
but backstory.
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mary rosenblum
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But it worked.
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mary rosenblum
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For her.
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gwanny
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thats what I meant (ward). Not
the whole story...just enough so that the reader knows the knight has a
reason
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mary rosenblum
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Well, gwanny, a cryptic
comment like 'this is for my brother' is going to tell us he has areason...
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mary rosenblum
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and, as I said, readers will
reserve judgement.
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beirdd
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Anne McCaffrey has a similar
foreword in her Dragon books.
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mary rosenblum
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That's right, she does. I
think she started doing that later in her Pern series. As I recall, the
original trilogy doesn't do that.
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mary rosenblum
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But it's tough...her Pern
universe is very complex and well realized and her regular fans know it
like their backyard.
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mary rosenblum
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If she created it each time
for new readers, she'd bore the regulars to tears.
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wardg
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don't some series have an
"our story so far..." chapter?
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mary rosenblum
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ONly the 'slice of sausage'
series, ward.
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mary rosenblum
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Those are essentially huge
stories that were arbitrarily cut into segments so they could be published.
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mary rosenblum
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Not the best way to do a
series in my opinion.
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mary rosenblum
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Readers have to wait too long
for the next installment and they get irritable.
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mary rosenblum
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Remember that you should check
scenes when you are done with your first draft.
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mary rosenblum
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In each scene ask yourself;
will my reader know 'who', 'what' , and 'when'?
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mary rosenblum
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Who is doing things, what are
they doing, and when/where is it happening.
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aulait
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In nonfiction the same
techniques are not needed, correct?
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mary rosenblum
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Yes and no, aulait.
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mary rosenblum
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Depends on what you are
writing.
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mary rosenblum
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In personal narrative, yeah,
backstory plays about the same role as it does in fiction.
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mary rosenblum
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Informative or persuasive
nonfiction uses different techniques, but your're still faced...
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mary rosenblum
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with the necessity to embed
information without halting the flow of the piece.
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mary rosenblum
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Remember, if you're writing
popular nonfiction and not for a textbook...
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mary rosenblum
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your goal is to entertain as
well as to inform.
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mary rosenblum
|
This is our After Hours Forum,
with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor and we're talking about backstory.
I've published seven novels and more than 60 short stories and will do my
best to answer any questions you have. If you're new here, remember that
you need to click on the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next
to the red question mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a
question. Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and
type your question into the regular send bar if that works better for you..
|
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wardg
|
isn't that why a lot of
nonfiction for periodicals uses sidebars? =optional backstory.
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mary rosenblum
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That's probably a pretty good
analogy, ward.
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mary rosenblum
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It's information not all
readers will want, so you give them the option.
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mary rosenblum
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What your backstory needs to
do...
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mary rosenblum
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is to make your characters'
actions comprehensible to the reader.
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mary rosenblum
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That's all.
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mary rosenblum
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And of course, if you're
writing in the speculative fiction field...
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mary rosenblum
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you are also creating an
entire universe at the same time...
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mary rosenblum
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you're juggling five balls
instead of three!
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aulait
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Backstory within a short story
is more difficult because of the limited word count. How do you condense
the back story effectively for shorter formats?
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mary rosenblum
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This is the ART of short
fiction, aulait...
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mary rosenblum
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it is deciding which details
carry the most 'bang for the buck'.
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mary rosenblum
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So that you use the minimum
number of backstory details to give the reader the most information.
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mary rosenblum
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You really can include ONLY
the backstory that is vital to the story in short fiction.
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mary rosenblum
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In novels, you can add more, as
long as you don't bog down the story..
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mary rosenblum
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and that's what gives novels
their richness.
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mary rosenblum
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In short fiction you suggest
things that you can actually include in a novel length work.
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mary rosenblum
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Think of a sumi painting...one
of those Japanese brushpaintings where perhaps twelve or eighteen brush
strokes...
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mary rosenblum
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will suggest a range of
mountains, a water fall, a forest and a leaping fish.
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mary rosenblum
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You find those few key details
that suggest the entire backstory...
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mary rosenblum
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and let the reader create it.
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mary rosenblum
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For example, our POV might
move into a small rural farmhouse in the West Virgina hills...
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mary rosenblum
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and meet a skinny kid with
wild gray eyes in patched jeans with a bruised face.
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mary rosenblum
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We may never learn any more
details of his homelife, but the suggestion will be...
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mary rosenblum
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rural poverty and a battering
parent.
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jmr
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We know our character lived for
many years before we write about him, so we need to find the one day, hour
or instant that is needed in our story - and not the past 40+ years - :-)
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mary rosenblum
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That's it exactly.
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mary rosenblum
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We could include the history
of the kid's family...how dad was a miner and the mine closed and mom
washes clothes and cares for seven kids and dad drinks...
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mary rosenblum
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but that's not important
enough to detail here.
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mary rosenblum
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In this short story, every
reader gets to create that homelife for himself/herself.
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mary rosenblum
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And it'll be similar but not
exactly the same.
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mary rosenblum
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That's why it's your job to
decide what details DO need to be included.
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mary rosenblum
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Let readers handle the rest.
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aulait
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So storytelling is like a
gourmet meal. The way it is served and the order it is served in has as
much to do with the experience as the food itself.
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mary rosenblum
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That's a great way of putting
it, aulait!
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mary rosenblum
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You are not cramming
information down a reader's throat.
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mary rosenblum
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And this is where a lot of
novices have problems.
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mary rosenblum
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It is now WHAT you write that
makes your work memorable.
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mary rosenblum
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It is HOW you do it.
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mary rosenblum
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Which is why it simply does
not matter if someone else has used a particular idea.
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wardg
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but not too gourmet, at least
fill up most of the plate... lol
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mary rosenblum
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Well, there are many tastes
out there, and just as you can have many many types of restaurants, you can
have a wide range of stories. (all right, I'm getting hungry...no more food
analogies. LOL)
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mary rosenblum
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How many times has the plot of
Romeo and Juliet been used?
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mary rosenblum
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Thousands, probably.
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mary rosenblum
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I'm sure Shakespeare was not
the first!
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mary rosenblum
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This is our After Hours Forum,
with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor and we're talking about backstory.
I've published seven novels and more than 60 short stories and will do my
best to answer any questions you have. If you're new here, remember that you
need to click on the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next to
the red question mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a question.
Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and type your
question into the regular send bar if that works better for you..
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mary rosenblum
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My advice, for the average new
writer, is to begin with as little backstory as you can.
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mary rosenblum
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If readers are confused, add
more, and keep that in mind next time.
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mary rosenblum
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The temptation is to dump in
that huge expository lump of character backstory or give us the history of
the planet...
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mary rosenblum
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if it's a SF or fantasy piece.
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mary rosenblum
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And then start the story.
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mary rosenblum
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Not a good idea.
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mary rosenblum
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One If you really must get
your reader firmly situated in your universe before you get the plot
rolling...
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mary rosenblum
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at least begin with your
characters doing something that reveals the nature of your unvierse rather
than narrating it!
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mary rosenblum
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I use that opening quite a bit
in my short fiction...
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mary rosenblum
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because I have to show my
readers a fairly complex future universe.
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mary rosenblum
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So my story may open with my
MC doing something that shows us the universe and then the plot line
starts....usually by page 2.
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mary rosenblum
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In mystery shorts, I can
generally start with a plot element because they're set in the real
world...
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mary rosenblum
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and readers can wait for a bit
to find out when and where.
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mary rosenblum
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Although the novel I just
finished opens with a plot element on page one and reveals the universe
simultaneously as the plot gets rolling...so you can do it many ways.
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mary rosenblum
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Remember...you need to keep
only what the reader MUST know.
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mary rosenblum
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Take out the stuff that would
be 'nice to know' and slip it in later.
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mary rosenblum
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And do try to have all your
backstory in place BEFORE the climax. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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You will reach a place where
you don't need to add any more backstory and can just concentrate on
letting the plot events unfold.
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mary rosenblum
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I think of it as my story
having 'legs' at that point.
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mary rosenblum
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It trots along all by itself
from there on, and I don't have to do any more world building or backstory
embedding.
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wardg
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it seems like hidden backstory
slipped in at the climax is one sure way to say "bad writing"...
and then i woke up?
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mary rosenblum
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Well, it's kind of useless
after the issue has been resolved, ward. Yep. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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And by the way.. 'And then I
woke up' doens't fly with many editors. :-)
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roe
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doesn't fly with many readers
either feel cheated
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mary rosenblum
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Yep. Which is why it doesn't
fly with editors. :-) They DO know what folk like.
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beirdd
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What about the "Author's
note" at the end of a story, to explain something factual that the
reader might not have known?
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mary rosenblum
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My own personal feeling is
that most of the time, that is bad writing. A lot of readers won't read it.
You're better off to embed it in the story...
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mary rosenblum
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but not all writers are
equally good at that.
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mary rosenblum
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And that afterward or foreward
is kind of a lazy way out, in my opinion.
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roe
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how do you feel about epilogue?
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mary rosenblum
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I think they are more
successful than prologues, roe. If you simply cannot wrap up ALL your loose
ends at the climax/resolution...
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mary rosenblum
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rather than stuff your ending,
do an epilogue.
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mary rosenblum
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Mostly you see it with novels,
where the long term future of the MCs is of high interest...
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mary rosenblum
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to the readers. A lot of
readers like it...an assurance that their beloved character really IS going
to make out all right.
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roe
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most of the ones I've seen are
romance three years later kind of thing
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geezer
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Would epilogue be suited to
historical pieces?
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mary rosenblum
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Yes, roe. Or we get to meet
the kid the pregnant heroine was carrying, as he comes of age... something
like that.
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mary rosenblum
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And sure, epilogues work in
any kind of fiction, geezer.
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mary rosenblum
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If they work. :-)
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jmr
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Epilogues that I have liked in
books with a lot of action - gives you a chance to cool down a bit too...
sometimes in a good book you don't want it end too soon...
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mary rosenblum
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It's a way to let the reader
down gently, jmr, and it's useful when you have a LOT of subplots to tie
up.
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mary rosenblum
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You can ignore some of those
subplots at the climax/resolution and tie them up in an epilogue.
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mary rosenblum
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So in summation...slip your
backstory in in little pieces and let the reader assemble the picture.
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mary rosenblum
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Less is usually more, although
you can err the other way.
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mary rosenblum
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And even pros need reader
input to get it right. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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Remember...we don't need to
know EVERYTHING...just the necessary details so that...
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mary rosenblum
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we can understand the
characters' actions.
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mary rosenblum
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Well, this has been a fun
Oregon hour. :-) Do join us Sunday for our open chat...
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mary rosenblum
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we just get together and talk
about everything writing.
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mary rosenblum
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Same time as the Forum
tonight, same place, but on Sundays.
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mary rosenblum
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Meanwhile, have a good
weekend!
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mary rosenblum
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I'll post the transcript in
the usual place: Writing Craft: ForumTranscripts.
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mary rosenblum
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Have a good weekend, all!
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