PSA: I was killing my characters with backstory dumps

Wrote 40 pages of backstory for my fantasy novel. Thought it was necessary. Then my writing group guy says "I don't care that your elf learned pottery at age 12." Ouch. He was right though. Nobody needs to know every childhood detail before the plot starts. How do you guys decide what backstory to actually include?

2 comments

2 Comments

nathan_foster6012d ago

40 pages?! Holy SHIT that's insane. I literally gasped when I read that number. The pottery line killed me because I've definitely done that with my own writing. I once wrote a whole chapter about my protagonist's pet bird that died when he was seven and then realized NONE of that mattered to the actual story. The trick I use now is simple - if the backstory doesn't directly cause a conflict or change the character's choice in the current scene, it gets cut. Your writing group guy was brutal but he was RIGHT.

carr.willow12d ago

Man that bird chapter thing is too real, @nathan_foster60 did you ever try to save it by weaving it into another scene or just scrap the whole thing?