Backstory

[poppunkpadfoot]

So... there are a lot of times when writing where you're going to want to give your readers a lot of backstory. Maybe your main character is an OC or a minor character. Maybe you're writing an AU where your setting and character details are completely different from canon. Maybe you're writing OF and need to include details from worldbuilding, or give context to the events of the story! There are plenty of scenarios.

I was wondering, what are your tips for including and revealing backstory? I find myself currently having a lot of backstory to explain/details to reveal, and what I don't want to do is use... let's call it the My Immortal model, where you start your story like "My name is Name, and here's what I look like. Here's the outfit I'm wearing right now. I've been going to This School for 3 years ever since my mom died tragically in a boat explosion and my dad and I moved here from Tasmania. My best friend is Nome, she's 5'3" and here's what her hair looks like..." and so on. In other words what I don't want to do is just dump everything in my reader's lap in Chapter 1. (I don't mean any offence to people who've done things this way, btw - I think it can be done well, it's just not really my style!)

So what are some other ways to do things? What are your Backstory Tips & Tricks?

[beyond the rain]

I might come back with more when I'm a bit more coherent, but I find with a back story is that it's fun not to reveal everything instantly. I like to drag things out. So using your example, I might show that "i've only been going to this school for three years, or I moved recently" and then not explain why until a few chapters down the line. I also find that having the characters not explicitly what's going on, but discuss the context of the backstory helps with that a lot. Maybe one character asks if the MC is okay, because the anniversary of their mother's death is coming up - without mentioning her mum. Or maybe there's "why do you dress like that?" "because of my mum." and then nothing else is said. What happened to her mum? Or "why do you dress like that?" "None of your business" - her closed off behaviour and snappy retort shows that there's a problem, and the reader now wants to know more? 

In other instances, the characters know the backstory but sometimes the readers don't. I think it's fun to reveal it through dialogue, something a character says naturally, eventually. I don't know if any of that makes sense? 

[crowsb4bros]

I’m looking at my current OF and my character’s description is all from dialogue with others. When we learn her name it comes from someone shouting it and her snapping toward the person. Her hair is described when another person is helping her clean up from the fight that just took place. I don’t think I’m great at not info dumping, but my info is usually dumped through natural conversation so it feels a little less dumped.

[Margaret]

I think a lot of it can be done subtly, through dialogue and so on. Of course, a lot is going to depend on your style of writing - whether you are writing in the first or the third person, whether your character is in a new situation or meeting somebody new that they would naturally explain things to or if everybody in the story already knows the backstory.

For example the part about going to the school could be included by another character who has been at the school longer alluding to some event from four years ago and your character reminding them "I wasn't there for that," and then then being like, "oh, yeah, I forgot you only arrived here after..." and then an awkward silence falling. Yeah, I know that's just an example, but that tells the reader when the character arrived at the school and that it was the result of a traumatic event. Or other characters could be talking about their mothers and then people remember what happens to the character's.

I agree with beyond the rain that it's more natural for things to come up gradually. In the example above, it is unlikely the characters will then get into a discussion about how her mother died (unless of course she is the type who'd respond with something like "when my mother died in a boat explosion," as a defense mechanism). 

I'd also keep in mind that often you have to know more than your reader does. For example, it is rarely important for the reader to know what the character is wearing, exactly what they look like, what pets they had in their childhood, etc. Those things I'd mention if they come up, but I wouldn't drag them in. There are even some things it is important for the writer to know but no the readers. I once had a minor character - my character's boss - who was a single mother who had had her child in her 'teens. None of this was ever mentioned. There was nothing in the story even to indicate she was a mother. I needed to know it as it affected her reaction when my character had a family crisis, but all my character knew was that her boss was understanding and that was also all the reader needed to know.