How much back story and character description

[KimGordon67]

So I'm working on m first story for Lit, and have so many questions. But the one I'm thinking about right now is how much backstory and character description is needed? I mean, I know the technical answer is 'none', but does that make for a less satisfying reader experience? And is there such a thing as 'too much' ... like, if you describe the main character with too much detail, especially if it's first person, does that make it more difficult for the reader to identify with them ... or is it, as a poet friend once said about poetry, the details that make the story universal?
I've already learnt a fair bit from posting in another thread (about first vs third person), but ended up feeling like I'd hijacked the OP's thread, when my original intention was to just not replicate a question that had obviously already been asked a heap of times.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Roll out back story as and when your story needs it.

Think of it this way: when you meet someone for the first time, do you get their life history? No, you don't, it bubbles up slowly, as you get to know the person over time.

Story telling works the same way - let your readers discover your characters as they exist now, today. What they did yesterday is irrelevant - if it was relevant, the story would have begun sooner.

Whenever I see a story begin, "When I was home on my summer break and blah blah blah," and the next five paragraphs are an "infodump" I'm gone from the story in seconds, back-clicking as fast as I can.

Ask yourself, who cares about your character's past? As a reader, I don't - tell me a story, not a biography. You need to care though - as the author you need to have some idea as to your characters' background, to draw down on it when needed, but you don't need to always tell the reader, not straight away, and sometimes never.

I'm a pantser writer: I don't plot, plan, do outlines, I don't do character sheets. I've had a new character arrive in a story in the space of a paragraph - they arrive out of the blue, and in some cases they take over the story. As their writer, I know nothing about them, and I discover who they are as I write. This is useful - if I have no clue who they are, I can never bog a story down with unecessary detail.

 

[alohadave]

As in all things, it depends.

It depends on the story you are telling. It depends on your style. It depends on what readers want and expect out of the story. Etc. There are lots of factors.

Are you writing a 2000 word stroker, or a 20,000 word story with a narrative? They have different needs for character development and backstory.

 

[Djmac1031]

The whole "How much character description" discussion can rage back and forth forever I suppose.

Bottom line I suppose is; depends on story need.

I myself bounce freely between well detailed character descriptions painting what I hope is a vivid image of the character in a readers head, and less detailed, vague descriptions that let a reader paint their own picture.

To me there's no right or wrong on this.

Except to say not to do it as a Description Dump.

We've all seen it. And I've probably been guilty of it, especially in my early stuff:

"She walked into the room. She was tall, 5 foot 9, with long, flowing blonde hair, bright blue eyes, ruby red lips, great smile, huge 36DD breasts, thin waist, wide hips and long legs.

I went over to say hello."

All those details are fine. But not in one sentence or paragraph, obviously.

Sprinkle them in throughout and you'd be fine.

 

[SeraphNocturne]

It entirely depends on what sort of story you're trying to write. Slow burn romance? Harrowing action packed thriller? Smutty one-shot?

There's no solid formula, and there are tons of readers who will enjoy a well put together story. Especially if your characters are three-dimensional and relatable. I won't say go off and spend a chapter devoting completely to the entire background and premise of your MC(s), unless that's what you want to do... but do give enough to make them interesting. The good news is, you can always add in smaller, meaningful details and backstory later.

I tend to introduce my characters in a way that allows me to describe them without it coming off as overly obvious... I put them in situations to give details about their appearance that isn't just: 5'5", 125 pounds, blonde hair, blue eyes, rockin' hot body. I like those details to be accented by situations and actions. If she's short she'll be struggling to reach for something. Her hair might catch the sunlight and her natural highlights might become noticed. It may be noticed she's slender because she wears baggy clothing... that sort of thing. That's me personally. But like I said, there is no right or wrong way!

Edit: I will add that I've got a series that introduces and describes characters and backstories over like five chapters. It doesn't get truly erotic until much later, and somehow, people are enjoying it. So go with whatever you're comfortable with!

 

[Djmac1031]

. I like those details to be accented by situations and actions. If she's short she'll be struggling to reach for something. Her hair might catch the sunlight and her natural highlights might become noticed. It may be noticed she's slender because she wears baggy clothing... that sort of thing

Love this approach, and it's one I've been working on improving in my own writing.

 

[onehitwanda]

If she's short she'll be struggling to reach for something. Her hair might catch the sunlight and her natural highlights might become noticed. It may be noticed she's slender because she wears baggy clothing... that sort of thing. That's me personally. But like I said, there is no right or wrong way!

https://media.tenor.com/wLvpArrd3JEAAAAC/this-is-the-way-mandalorian.gif

 

[SeraphNocturne]

https://media.tenor.com/wLvpArrd3JEAAAAC/this-is-the-way-mandalorian.gif

...that's hawt.

 

[KimGordon67]

Except to say not to do it as a Description Dump.

We've all seen it. And I've probably been guilty of it, especially in my early stuff:

"She walked into the room. She was tall, 5 foot 9, with long, flowing blonde hair, bright blue eyes, ruby red lips, great smile, huge 36DD breasts, thin waist, wide hips and long legs.

I went over to say hello."

All those details are fine. But not in one sentence or paragraph, obviously.

Yes ... this is what I wanted to avoid. Especially as for this first one, the main character is essentially me. (Though I wouldn't describe 36DD as 'huge' ... that's me after the reduction surgery. )

 

[KimGordon67]

It entirely depends on what sort of story you're trying to write. Slow burn romance? Harrowing action packed thriller? Smutty one-shot?

There's no solid formula, and there are tons of readers who will enjoy a well put together story. Especially if your characters are three-dimensional and relatable. I won't say go off and spend a chapter devoting completely to the entire background and premise of your MC(s), unless that's what you want to do... but do give enough to make them interesting. The good news is, you can always add in smaller, meaningful details and backstory later.

I tend to introduce my characters in a way that allows me to describe them without it coming off as overly obvious... I put them in situations to give details about their appearance that isn't just: 5'5", 125 pounds, blonde hair, blue eyes, rockin' hot body. I like those details to be accented by situations and actions. If she's short she'll be struggling to reach for something. Her hair might catch the sunlight and her natural highlights might become noticed. It may be noticed she's slender because she wears baggy clothing... that sort of thing. That's me personally. But like I said, there is no right or wrong way!

Edit: I will add that I've got a series that introduces and describes characters and backstories over like five chapters. It doesn't get truly erotic until much later, and somehow, people are enjoying it. So go with whatever you're comfortable with!

I love this.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I think the advice you've gotten on descriptions is spot on. As for backstory, only enough to give the reader a peek into the character's mindset. And that's about it. I did a bit of fan-fictioning years ago and saw a lot of backstories from writers who were IN LOVE with their characters and developed enormous past timelines, that only served to bog down the story.

"That smile made him feel good. It had been a while since anyone had smiled at him like that. Henry had a poor history with women. He seemed to be a magnet for the wrong sort. He was thirty years old, with two rather nasty toxic relationships in the past, that made him leery of putting himself out there again."

In my opinion, there's no need to go beyond that.

 

[TheRedChamber]

(*all examples simplified from my own stories)

One good rule is to try and start your story with an action.

- Instead of saying "Robert was an artist." say "Robert hung his latest painting on the wall" - then have him take a step back and examine it, telling us more about Robert based on what he's painted.

- Or instead of saying "Susan didn't go on many dates," have her nervously push a piece of salad around her plate as she failes to make conversation with her blind-date.

- If your starting action is "Merle downed another shot of whiskey and then looked around the bar for someone to hit on." then it makes sense that you then launch into a two paragraph description of the female MC - but remember the description can say as much about him as it does about her - and maybe remember to give some options about other ladies in the room to put his choice into context.

Another possibility is to start your story with a clear (but maybe minor) problem.

- A stripper who is due on stage in five minutes can't find her bag.

- Someone who just left a boring Christmas party has to go back there for some reason.

- A university student attempting to return a lawn-mower to a neighbour who appears to be out.

None of these are the story themselves, but they present enough 'suspense' to keep the reader occupied for the first vital paragraphs while the characters and setting are established and the actual plot gets underway.

 

[KimGordon67]

Whatever you do, DON'T do it right!

The human mind is wired to think in narrative form. In fact, our memory can retain vital information far better through stories than mere facts.

In this restaurant, people love eating sugar-flavored crap— the more, the better. Don't limit yourself; add descriptions as much as you can. The story should be flooded with meaningless details to mask the meaninglessness of the story itself. The same applies to repetitions: don't be afraid to repeat things recklessly. The more you repeat unnecessary details, the more the English reader will enjo

(*all examples simplified from my own stories)

One good rule is to try and start your story with an action.

- Instead of saying "Robert was an artist." say "Robert hung his latest painting on the wall" - then have him take a step back and examine it, telling us more about Robert based on what he's painted.

- Or instead of saying "Susan didn't go on many dates," have her nervously push a piece of salad around her plate as she failes to make conversation with her blind-date.

- If your starting action is "Merle downed another shot of whiskey and then looked around the bar for someone to hit on." then it makes sense that you then launch into a two paragraph description of the female MC - but remember the description can say as much about him as it does about her - and maybe remember to give some options about other ladies in the room to put his choice into context.

Another possibility is to start your story with a clear (but maybe minor) problem.

- A stripper who is due on stage in five minutes can't find her bag.

- Someone who just left a boring Christmas party has to go back there for some reason.

- A university student attempting to return a lawn-mower to a neighbour who appears to be out.

None of these are the story themselves, but they present enough 'suspense' to keep the reader occupied for the first vital paragraphs while the characters and setting are established and the actual plot gets underway.

Thanks ... all super useful examples as well!

 

[Bramblethorn]

So I'm working on m first story for Lit, and have so many questions. But the one I'm thinking about right now is how much backstory and character description is needed? I mean, I know the technical answer is 'none', but does that make for a less satisfying reader experience? And is there such a thing as 'too much' ... like, if you describe the main character with too much detail, especially if it's first person, does that make it more difficult for the reader to identify with them ... or is it, as a poet friend once said about poetry, the details that make the story universal?
I've already learnt a fair bit from posting in another thread (about first vs third person), but ended up feeling like I'd hijacked the OP's thread, when my original intention was to just not replicate a question that had obviously already been asked a heap of times.

I agree with others here that generally it's better to drip-feed backstory along the way rather than front-loading it, but what counts as "backstory" is another question. In particular it's not necessarily "everything before the sex".

Taking my story "Anjali's Red Scarf" as an example, it's about two people who meet when one of them is a child, and form a mentoring relationship that drifts into friendship and eventually becomes a sexual relationship. A lot of the story is about how that changes things between them, and to tell that story I first have to establish what it was like before sex entered the picture. So the first ~15k words (out of a 100k-word story) are setting that up - but IMHO that's still story. Other details about the characters are more backstory, like a tragedy in the protagonist's past, and that only comes up at the point where the two characters are talking about it.

However, if one's doing something like that, I think it's a good idea to give the readers some reassurance that if they stick with you for a chapter or so they'll get a payoff. So I began that one with a couple of paragraphs of conversation between the two as adults, just before things get sexual, before jumping back to start from the beginning of their acquaintance.

 

[NoTalentHack]

Everything that everyone else here has said is very useful, but I'll add that there's one place where an infodump can be very useful: when a character is revealing something about themselves to another character. If done correctly, it can be both a way of revealing detail to the reader, but also allowing two characters to deepen their relationship with each other. I'm guilty of using it, like, a lot. Build the characters up a little bit at the beginning, get the reader invested, and then pay that investment off later by giving them details about characters they've already gotten attached to.

 

[ronde]

So I'm working on m first story for Lit, and have so many questions. But the one I'm thinking about right now is how much backstory and character description is needed? I mean, I know the technical answer is 'none', but does that make for a less satisfying reader experience? And is there such a thing as 'too much' ... like, if you describe the main character with too much detail, especially if it's first person, does that make it more difficult for the reader to identify with them ... or is it, as a poet friend once said about poetry, the details that make the story universal?
I've already learnt a fair bit from posting in another thread (about first vs third person), but ended up feeling like I'd hijacked the OP's thread, when my original intention was to just not replicate a question that had obviously already been asked a heap of times.

Writing is painting pictures with words in the reader's mind, and how much of a picture you paint depends upon what you want the reader to "see". Main characters should be described well enough to turn them from cardboard cutouts into real people. That means the reader should get a mental image of both how the character looks and the character's personality. Other characters only need be described to the extent they're important to the story like, "traffic cop" or "nurse". Some don't need to be described at all other they using words like "guy", "girl", "dog", "horse", etc.

The real key is how that description is painted and the point of view of the story. In first person, the description will come from the main character and will obviously be colored by the thoughts, opinions, and personality of that character, be they right or wrong.

The thing I try to avoid in first person is very detailed descriptions of the other characters. Think about what you think when you see a person you don't know. What do you notice at first? What do you care about knowing? I find it unlikely that any man could look at a woman he doesn't know very, very well and determine her height, weight, bra size, or what she's thinking at the moment. What he would know is how she looks to him - hair color and length, some assessment of her size and proportions depending upon what she's wearing, and maybe what her face and body language are telling him about how she's feeling. Usually those descriptions will be short. Over the course of the story, that description can become more detailed as he begins to learn about her.

In third person writing, you have more leeway because the narrator sees and knows everything about each character, but again, I don't think a reader wants to know the guy only has a four inch cock or that the girl has nipples an inch long and half an inch in diameter. It's enough to say the guy feels a little inferior because of the size of his cock or that the girl has to wear nipple shields because she'd embarrassed by what her nipples do to anything she wears. Both descriptions tell a reader enough about the physical appearance and personality of the characters that he or she can paint that picture.

I think it's important to let the reader fill in those details as he or she see's fit. That will help them identify with the characters as well as keep them reading to see what impact that description plays in the story. If you describe something that doesn't matter, like say, the guy has a scar on the back of his hand but the story doesn't tell how he got that scar and how it affects his personality, you don't need to add it. The reader might keep looking for why that scar was important and miss the point of what you're writing.

I much prefer describing characters with dialogue instead of just writing details. I think "hearing" the description of one character by another character or by himself or herself is more believable than just a list of physical attributes and personality quirks.

 

[HordHolm]

Something that can be useful when navigating 'obligatory description paragraph' is to contrast one character with another, so in a story I'm currently writing two best friends are seen in the mirrored plate glass window of a shop front, and the description then comes from the idea of an outsider finding it difficult to see the friends' underlying similarities due to their marked physical differences. One of the characters is actually rather minor in the story, but the other is central, and this is a useful mechanism to describe her (albeit in a very broad outline).

Another mechanism I've used in the past is along similar lines as ronde's point about hearing the details of the character directly from that character, with a female character looking at herself in a mirror, trying to understand what it is about her physical self that attracts her boyfriend and contrasting that with what she thinks he should like.

 

[Voboy]

Depends.

If I'm doing a horror or fantasy or space story, there is a LOT of worldbuilding that needs to take place, to include backstories. I dislike doing all that in a big dump expository passage at the start; I like to intersperse these things.

So for each of my pieces, I keep track of everybody's backstory and character descriptions on a separate document. I did this because it helps me if I want to include those same characters in some future story, but it has another benefit: I can parcel out the backstory that fits my plot, in a way that serves that plot.

Meaning, I've got immensely detailed biographies for most of my characters, but my readers don't need to see all of that in a given story. I like to think, though, that the little tidbits from those more detailed backstories do find their way into my pieces, in one way or another: tonally, or through in-jokes or easter eggs, or however.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

“You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court.”

These are the U.K. rights read upon arrest (God, that’s shit wording) but it does apply to backstory.

When you’re writing get the story down fully and that will tell you how much backstory to have.

The best thing to remember is action defines character. Show don’t tell.

Also don’t worry about hijacking a thread, by the time this thread is finished we’ll be talking about Elephants and Trains magazine or some shit like that.

 

[SimonDoom]

Everything that everyone else here has said is very useful, but I'll add that there's one place where an infodump can be very useful: when a character is revealing something about themselves to another character. If done correctly, it can be both a way of revealing detail to the reader, but also allowing two characters to deepen their relationship with each other. I'm guilty of using it, like, a lot. Build the characters up a little bit at the beginning, get the reader invested, and then pay that investment off later by giving them details about characters they've already gotten attached to.

Dialogue can be a great way to convey information. It can go down easier this way than an infodump directly by the narrator to the reader.

I just read a great example of this: Patrick OBrian's Master and Commander. It's the first of a 20-book series about a British naval captain and his adventures. The problem for the modern reader is that their knowledge about the anatomy of a circa-1800 British warship and familiarity with contemporaneous naval terms is likely almost nil. So how to convey it? O'Brian handled it by having a new character, the ship's surgeon, with no nautical experience, get a tour from another character, an experienced seaman, who explained things. It was still difficult to follow at times, but much less so than if the the author tried to handle it through an infodump.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Everything that everyone else here has said is very useful, but I'll add that there's one place where an infodump can be very useful: when a character is revealing something about themselves to another character. If done correctly, it can be both a way of revealing detail to the reader, but also allowing two characters to deepen their relationship with each other. I'm guilty of using it, like, a lot. Build the characters up a little bit at the beginning, get the reader invested, and then pay that investment off later by giving them details about characters they've already gotten attached to.

That's exactly what I did in my Mary and Alvin series, and it wasn't until the sixth chapter, "Bonnie's Bed."

Alvin is a widower. He and Mary have been seeing each other for a while, but have not slept together at his house. When she comes to his house to spend the night, and he balks, she realizes that he still has issues about being with another woman in the bed where he slept with his wife, where they had conceived their children.

They spend the night sleeping downstairs in the living room, and Mary asks him to tell her about her. He does, through dialogue that merges in and out of flashbacks.

This method really worked for me, because the telling of the backstory actually advanced the narrative.

 

[NotWise]

I'm going to say something that's been said before. Write what you enjoy writing.

If you don't want to write backstory, characterization or description, then don't--write sex and leave it at that. You will find readers.

If you enjoy developing characters and writing the story behind the sex, then do it. Your story is more erotic to some readers if they feel like they know the characters or can empathize with them. It might be generally true that the smaller number of readers who take the time to understand the characters also vote more and award higher scores.

There's a similar contrast for long stories .vs. short stories. You might get more votes and readers for shorter stories, but more appreciative readers for longer stories.

We all find where we want to be in the spectrum. It might take some time to find that point; it's where you find the greatest satisfaction because, without that satisfaction, you're unlikely to go on.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

... how much backstory and character description is needed?

One useful tool is 'Chekhov's Rifle', named after the famous Russian play-write, Anton Chekhov. Chekhov used the analogy of a writer describing a room, including a description of a rifle hanging on the wall. His point was that the readers are going, to one degree or another, to keep waiting for the rifle to appear later on in the story and that it would become a minor distraction. Ergo, he felt, the rifle should not have been mentioned; writers should only include relevant details. (Not all writers agree, of course.)

In any case, if applied to your question, the principle would be that you include only that backstory and character description necessary to make the story work. If your tale is about, say, an affair between a firefighter and a police officer, both in their early 30s, including a scene describing his having spent an afternoon poring over his boyhood stamp collection would be pointless. (Of course, it might be relevant. Maybe she likes stamps, too, and they meet at a stamp collector's club? Otherwise, as a general principle, it's not advisable.)

One example on a personal basis are those writers (mainly men, I suspect) who include in the story a detailed description of their car - the precise paint colour, the engine size and carburetor make, the type of tires, interior decoration and so forth. Maybe that woos those readers who are serious sports car fans, but I myself find it distracting - unless it leads into the main plot, of course. Similarly, that one of the characters has a dislike of, say, cabbage is only useful if it builds the story.

YMMV, of course.

 

[Voboy]

One example on a personal basis are those writers (mainly men, I suspect) who include in the story a detailed description of their car - the precise paint colour, the engine size and carburetor make, the type of tires, interior decoration and so forth. Maybe that woos those readers who are serious sports car fans, but I myself find it distracting - unless it leads into the main plot, of course. Similarly, that one of the characters has a dislike of, say, cabbage is only useful if it builds the story.

I find this sort of thing is a good way, when writing in FP, to give the reader an idea of what kind of person the narrator is.

A narrator who's a surgeon is going to use different words and be interested in different things than a narrator who's (let's say) a gardener. Both will notice different things about the events they're describing. That kind of thing lends verisimilitude.

 

[HordHolm]

One example on a personal basis are those writers (mainly men, I suspect) who include in the story a detailed description of their car - the precise paint colour, the engine size and carburetor make, the type of tires, interior decoration and so forth. Maybe that woos those readers who are serious sports car fans, but I myself find it distracting - unless it leads into the main plot, of course. Similarly, that one of the characters has a dislike of, say, cabbage is only useful if it builds the story.

Ha! Yes. Same goes for military equipment, kung fu techniques, workout equipment at the gym, expensive sets of golf clubs, and so on, etc.