Friday, March 30, 2012

So You Want To Be An Author Part Two

You’ve written your characterization and now you’re good to go. Wrong!

Time to consider the back-story. What’s back-story? It’s the life chronicle of your characters. All of your characters. Every person in your novel has a past which is why you wrote characterizations. They think, feel, and act based on their history just as we do.

If you don’t have critique partners, get some. Not your mom or best friend. They truly can’t be objective. Hook up with writer’s groups, workmates willing to share their opinions, or friend who love to read. Empower them to be honest. You’ll be glad you did.

My CPs are always willing to read a member’s work and constructively correct the flaws at any time. They’re also brutal about sloughing off. Back when I was green and dumb, Beth Anderson took me under her wing. She sent me an insightful e-mail after reading my first chapter.

“A suggestion is to perhaps cut the back-story a little. I’d like to see your heroine’s issues be a mystery to me as a reader. After reading the first chapter there’s no mystery. I understand her, I understand her issues, and I know her history. Let her be more of a mystery, don’t tell me everything, let it come out in dribs and drabs.” Beth’s words made me think.

At our next meeting I broached the subject. Melissa Bradley, an author and friend who speaks her mind, said it was “too much, waaaay to soon”. Of course, the others agreed. These buds made me think even more and to these authors I am forever grateful.

This is what I finally learned;

If little Johnny peed his pants in third grade and the teacher shamed him in front of his class, readers don’t care. It’s only important as a brief mention or a thought timely planted in the story. Johnny knows what he did and the reader only wants an indication if it brings out some deep dark secret which leads him to act as he does in your book.

This is what I finally figured out to correct my problem;

1 - List all the high points from your characterization. (Don’t panic; remember on Thursday we’ll discuss characterization.) Skip the height, weight, etc. You only want the important events, ie;

a. Johnny peed his pants
b. He feels shame whenever he wears brown
c. He won’t talk in front of groups
d. He has a fear of public bathrooms

Get the idea?

2 – Write your story and drop in a line of back-story here and there but only where it’s appropriate.

3 – Cross out the line from your list after you use it and note in the margin which page it’s on.

This method taught me to sprinkle in the back-story for the proper effect and not put the reader in a coma.

There will be pages in your book with plenty of back-story, but if the timing’s right it’s perfect.

Have a wonderful weekend. I’ll be back Monday with Paul Stansfield and his exciting suspense book DEAD RECKONING. Until then…

Happy Writing!

Sloane Taylor
www.facebook.com/AuthorSloaneTaylor

5 comments:

  1. Great tip, Sloane. Back-story is something people told me about at the start of my writing and you've summed it up so well. We just need to sprinkle it throughout our book in dribs and drabs and not "dump" it.
    Patti

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Patti! Hard not to dump, isn't it? Took me a long time and many bonks on the head to learn to sprinkle.:)

      Delete
  2. Hello, I always liked the idea of sprinkling; maybe that's an important question throughout your career, to sort of take bits and pieces here and there but never tell your whole life story in one book but use different parts/themes here and there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Excellent idea, Chrissy! Thanks for dropping in and sharing.

      Delete
  3. I was at those earlier meetings with Beth, damn I miss those and the food. LOL Glad you were at the head of the class so she could use her star pupil as an example.

    When I write, I keep the character's backstory in the back of my head so that I can add little bits as I proceed.

    Have you noticed as an reader and author that when you read someone else's work you can see the backstory being added?

    ReplyDelete