How to Incorporate Backstory

In a world where we’re constantly being told to “show not tell,” layering in backstory can feel counterintuitive because it involves a lot of telling. Yet it is an essential part of any story. It makes characters more complex, informs their actions, values, and beliefs, and it enriches the world. Depending on the type of narrative you’re writing, you may need only a few lines of backstory or you may need a few pages worth. But while backstory is essential, laying it in at the opportune moment is an art. Here are the three ways to work backstory into your writing.

Brick by Brick

Rome wasn’t built in a day and the same goes for backstory. Dumping backstories and lore in all at once can derail your plot and turn a chapter into a Wikipedia page. Dropping in backstories one brick at a time throughout the narrative enables you to strike a balance between keeping the present action moving forward and providing the context readers may need to understand the gravity of the present scene. It’s important to note that this type of backstory happens as an aside. 

You can find countless examples of this through A Song of Ice and Fire. Martin is constantly dropping in backstories, histories, and lore. It’s actually the entire reason Martin wrote Fire and Blood! Of course, there are moments where Martin goes a little too deep into the lore, but this is also a massive part of the series’ appeal. 

Leaning on Dialogue

Another option is to include a backstory within dialogue. While this method can ensure you’re moving your scene forward, while also deepening character and world development, it does require a little more finesse. Some lines of dialogue can be used to spell out what’s happened, but other times, you may need to work in dialogue that has a dual meaning and represents both the past and the present. An example that I really like for this options is in The Lies of Locke Lamora. Whenever Locke and his gentlemen bastards are bantering we see the relationship between the thieves, how sharp and quick-witted Locke is, and we get a lot backstory about the characters and the workings of the world. 

Flashbacks

Last but not least is the good ol’ flashback. Sometimes drip feeding your backstory and embedding it into dialogue just doesn’t cut it, especially if it’s a moment that continues to be at the forefront of the reader’s mind in the present. The challenge though is figuring out the ideal place to put the flashback(s) because you’re going to be pulling readers out of the present narrative. The trick is pulling them out at the right time without derailing the momentum. When I think of flashbacks, I think of the alternating narratives in Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven and Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies and The Burning World. In each of these novels, the authors set the tone early with flashbacks and it almost becomes a rhythm of moving between the past and the present. But whether it’s a flashback or the present narrative there is a sense of momentum. 

Whatever methods you choose, I would hold off on thinking too much about whether or not your backstory is “working” or “artful” until you’ve completed the novel and are diving into developmental edits. When you’re getting that first draft down, getting as much backstory on the page is a big help for you writing the story. Then during the develop editing page you can always trim it back or add where you need. Once you’re out of the developmental editing phase, the next test for your backstory is your beta readers.

If you’re still on the fence about whether or not you’re using backstory effectively after you’ve completed the developmental editing phase, don’t panic because I guarantee your beta readers will let you know. If this is a point of contention for you, ask your betas to be on the lookout for places where backstory felt unnecessary or places where they needed more context.

In beta readers we trust!