Background in first chapter

[TheEarl]

Or in fact page. Just rewriting my novel and putting a lot more depth into my main character. Just a quick question: Are you put off by having lots of backstory in the first chapter? It's well done, all show and not tell, but there's a lot of remembring of past events and not a lot of action. Would you mind this in a novel? Or would you hate it?

The Earl

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Or in fact page. Just rewriting my novel and putting a lot more depth into my main character. Just a quick question: Are you put off by having lots of backstory in the first chapter? It's well done, all show and not tell, but there's a lot of remembring of past events and not a lot of action. Would you mind this in a novel? Or would you hate it?

The Earl

I like it, so long as there's a taunt of what's to come, or that learning the background is going to make me feel that I have knowledge on the main character that his counterparts don't.

Wouldn't turn me off at all. I prefer to know more rather than less.

~lucky

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Well, it's hard to say without knowing the specifics, but generally I don't like it at all. It's like you just start a stroy, and all of a sudden you're shunted back onto the past to hear all these tedious details when you don't even know what the story's about or whether you even want to read it yet.

If you've got a lot of background to explain, at least wait until we're interested in what the characters are doing now and the hook is set, so to speak.

I also think that, as writers, we're often tempted to throw in more background than the reader really needs. I've read fuck stories here that start with two people meeting and suddenly swoop back and start talking about the girl's academic performance in high school. If what she's doing now isn't interesting, why should I care about her childhood?

I say as a rule of thumb, start the story and then fill in the backghround as you go along as much as possible, and if the background is more than one or two paragraphs, then you're probably either telling too much or you've started your story in the wrong place.

---dr.M.

 

[shereads]

I've read fuck stories here that start with two people meeting and suddenly swoop back and start talking about the girl's academic performance in high school. If what she's doing now isn't interesting, why should I care about her childhood?

 

[gauchecritic]

I've only read "A Bigger Boy Did It And Ran Away" The, do it like he does it. Introduce interesting characters and then kill them straight away.

Aaah you know what I mean.

 

[KarenAM]

It depends a great deal on your style and the type of story you're telling. If the background you're giving is interesting and active, you can do it. The other thing to ask yourself is what purpose the background serves. If you're just rying to create a "well-rounded" character for its own sake, it can get in the way. If, on the other hand, it is directly related the what your character does in your novel, or the theme of the novel, or something like that, background is fine.

Ultimately, in serious fiction writing there are no hard and fast rules. You do the best you can, listening to your muse, and practice, practice, practice on style, language, structure, etc. No two authors write the same way, nor should they.

Good luck with it!

 

[she_is_my_addiction]

I never do it like that. I always like to start stories in the middle of the action, something I learned in my three years of writing classes. It puts you right there, and there's always time to go back and explicate. If a story started with a ton of backstory I'd probably be bored.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Or in fact page. Just rewriting my novel and putting a lot more depth into my main character. Just a quick question: Are you put off by having lots of backstory in the first chapter? It's well done, all show and not tell, but there's a lot of remembring of past events and not a lot of action. Would you mind this in a novel? Or would you hate it?

The Earl

You have to give background, how you do it is really a matter of taste. If a good summary is the methond of choice, I think early is better than late.

I provide all the background I can in mine, no one has complained much

 

[gauchecritic]

Probably a good word to remember in this context The, is 'pertinent'.

 

[Weird Harold]

Or in fact page. Just rewriting my novel and putting a lot more depth into my main character. Just a quick question: ...

As others have said, "it all depends."

I would suggest that any time you have to ask this sort of question, the answer is usually NO.

Subconsciously, your "author's instinct" is telling you that this amount and style of background isn't working.

Personally, I usually prefer to learn a character's background the same way I learn about a real person -- in dribs and drabs and nuggets of information throughout my acquaintance with them.

I don't need a "fact sheet" or "dossier" on a character either. If you need one to develop the character then write one, but I (as a reader) don't usually need to see it -- If I do need to see the dossier ona character, then the author probably hasn't written the character according to the dossier.

 

[TheEarl]

Re: Re: Background in first chapter

I would suggest that any time you have to ask this sort of question, the answer is usually NO.

Subconsciously, your "author's instinct" is telling you that this amount and style of background isn't working.

That is quite possibly the most pertinent piece of advice ever given on this board. Thank you.

The Earl