Backstory Burnout
Musings from The Pipeline by wordshaper Janet Fix ~~
I often vacillate between about the importance — or unimportance — of backstory in a novel, how much detail is too much or too little. Obviously it differs bet
ween books, but in general it is a greater challenge to exclude backstory or to offer the details more creatively than an “explanation dump.”
I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this subject. Do you find backstory a challenge one way or the other, and what are some basic guidelines you use for yourself to avoid backstory burnout?
Some great insight to this subject is here: http://www.livewritethrive.com/2012/01/11/hold-back-the-back-story
In this blog, C.S. Larkin writes:
“RUE: Resist the Urge to Explain. Your readers aren’t dumb—really! They don’t need you to explain everything, and they actually enjoy a mystery and being allowed to start figuring out the puzzle you are presenting.”
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