Backstory and How Not to Shoot Yourself in the Foot With It 

What is backstory and why does it matter? For instance, though characters are what they do, every surprising action has to make sense in light of the character’s backstory. The challenge for the novelist is finding “Page One” and then revealing backstory without bogging down the front story. Topics include:

- What is backstory

- Whose backstory matters to the front story

- Mining the sources of backstory (character, setting, situation, context...)

- Formulating backstory and determining how much the reader needs to be "told"

- How to find your Page One and avoid the "backstory dump"

- Strategies for layering in backstory so that it enhances the front story

Difficulty level:

Speaker(s)

• Hallie Ephron

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