Backstory?

[sethp]

I usually just write the story putting just enough backstory there for the story to make sense...then as I'm writing I find that I need to go back and add to or change the backstory during my rewrite.

 

[Hypoxia]

There's backstory, which explains why people and events are as they are. And there are plot gerbils, little elements that chew their way into a story and add flavor. Readers may not NEED to know about character quirks and goofs, but those 'irrelevant' details are brush-strokes to paint fuller portraits. OTOH many characters walk through my tales with absolutely no baggage. Those tend to have flatter portraits, more caricatures than rounded personalities. The author gets to decide who to flesh-out and who to leave as a rough sketch.

So in THE BOOK OF RUTH: BEFORE RUTH the reader doesn't NEED to know that adolescent Jill raised tarantulas that overran her family's house (the girl she's based on raised iguanas) but that glimpse of her youthful enthusiasms and goofiness helps portray her as a person, not a stock walk-on.

I have learned this over the decades: Everybody is weird. Everybody harbors an insane core. Nobody is 'normal'. An old TV show had the tagline THERE ARE TEN MILLION STORIES IN THE NAKED CITY and that's exactly right -- every single person has a comi-tragic history. Authors can gloss-over the oddities of walk-ons. But portraying significant characters as flat or 'normal'... well, that's okay in satire or strokers. I like more rounded characters.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

Consider the people, friends, and characters you've met in real life. For most, we know very little about their back stories. With some, we're forever left to wonder how they got that scar right above their left eye. For others, it's a story they LOVE to tell.

Passing out bits of back story along the way is probably best, though I'm never sure how much of it is needed. And, as in real life, there are some people whose back stories we'll never know.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Rule of Thumb: If its interesting include it.

 

[49greg]

Rule of Thumb: If its interesting include it.

That's the truth. I've been guilty of putting in too much backstory, just because I'm wordy.

While I'm writing I have a short synopsis of each character - height/weight/hair color/built/personality type of thing just so I know and can refer to. It helps me build up a film in my head as the story progresses, as well as brings me up to speed if I leave it for months at a time before coming back to it. I've put edited versions at the front of a story or two as a "cast of characters." That wasn't well received.

I like flashback, as well as dropping in backstory during conversations between characters: "You've always wanted to get that nose fixed, didn't you say you broke it in a clown car accident while you were working at the pentagon?"

Didn't someone else say you put it in where it fits best?

 

[3113]

Consider the people, friends, and characters you've met in real life. For most, we know very little about their back stories. With some, we're forever left to wonder how they got that scar right above their left eye.

Excellent point! Sometimes it's best to leave your character with a bit of mystery. And, in many cases, a mystery element like that will lead readers to come up with their own reasons for what happened ("It's a dueling scar!"). And often, the story they come up with is better. So you actually shouldn't tell them the truth because they'll be disappointed. So win-win. You don't have to spend story time relating the backstory, and your readers are deliciously happy with what they think happened.

Once again, however, YOU, the writer should know the truth—how this guy got that scar—because it informs how you'll write him (if it's dueling scar, then that's one sort of person. If it was a childhood accident, that's another sort of person). But the reader doesn't always have to know and sometimes doesn't want to know. A character we readers know everything about usually isn't as much fun as one with some mystery about them.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Congratulation!

Congrats, Craftsman! Sounds like you're making that difficult transition from porn (which is pretty much no more than descriptions of people having sex) to erotic literature (examination of the thoughts and feelings that accompany an erotic act.)

That's a very good sign, because the sexiest stuff always happens in the characters' heads and hearts. And for that to happen you need real flesh-and-blood, complicated, characters, and not just paper-doll fuck dummies with 14" cocks or 36 DD tits.

You've already gotten plenty of good advice on how to handle the back-story issue. I'm not crazy about flashbacks, but as long as you're not actually transporting us to those days of yore in present tense, it's perfectly fine to have a character remember an incident that influenced their current position. If it';s more than one memory, though, you need to put that stuff in a separate chapter.

As for characters taking control of a story-- That's an authorial call. I've had stories where the characters narrated the whole story to me and I just copied it down, and I LOVE when that happens. Other times you find the characters just disobeying your original idea, and there you've got to be careful.

Characters usually aren't very smart or prescient, and they might lead you anywhere. It's a good idea to maintain some idea of where you want to go.

 

[TheNaughtyCraftsman]

Thank you all, yet again. The input from all of you should help as I move forward with the pieces. There are a couple that deal with characters that are less damaged, and those are more fluffy. The ones that get inside your head and scratch your brain when you are writing them are the ones that need a bit of backstory to explain why they are the way they are. Granted, the reader doesn't need to know everything, but for me at least, I want to know how the characters tick and think.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

Thank you all, yet again. The input from all of you should help as I move forward with the pieces. There are a couple that deal with characters that are less damaged, and those are more fluffy. The ones that get inside your head and scratch your brain when you are writing them are the ones that need a bit of backstory to explain why they are the way they are. Granted, the reader doesn't need to know everything, but for me at least, I want to know how the characters tick and think.

For me, quite often, that's precisely why I'm writing the story. To allow the character I just met to sketch themselves out.