Good morning everyone,
It’s so great to be here with you again. I missed you all as always. I know we’ve all struggled with today’s topic, but I have a few tips on how to limit the seemingly never-ending stream of backstory and help your editors out by not making them dig through it and how you can dig through it yourself.
Here’s a very quick tip to figure out if you’re adding too much backstory in all at once and ways to notice if you’re prattling on a bit too long. Does it feel a little like you’re telling a mini-story within this story? Then maybe it is a bit much and time to cut back on the backstory or description to the absolute basics and the must-knows.
Do you feel like your characters are spending an awful lot of time inside their own head? Most people don’t spend an extended amount of time inside their mind while things are going on around them, ex. other conversations they are part of or actions/events those around them are participating in. Then maybe splash or sprinkle in the internal dialogue instead of holding an entire conversation in that character’s head.
When should a character hold a conversation with themselves inside their head? The answer is simple as we do it all the time, but we don’t tend to do it when we’re around other people or participating in anything going on. A character can talk to themselves when they are alone and not doing anything or doing something mundane.
For example, if you’ve just had a giant secret come out in front of a group of people who didn’t know at a dinner party and you need the character to spend some time inside their mind thinking it through then have them clear the table or start the dishes and sprinkle in their actions among their inner dialogue. This will help it feel more natural and not like it’s interrupting anything crucial going on in the story.
These things will help lower your word count if you’re finding you are waaaay over it. But it will also make your writing and the story clear and easier and more interesting to read. Pick what parts of the backstory are absolutely necessary for a particular scene or to know before a specific scene and leave everything else out. Tell the reader only what they need to know when they need to know it.
Thank you so much for being here and reading my posts, it really means a lot! Short and sweet I know, but I’ll be back again next week. Please let me know what you think or if you have any tips to add to those written here. I’d love to hear from you. Lots of love! Happy reading and writing guys and we will see you all next week.
Celine Rose Marie