What Novel Are You In?
There's really not much you need to know about me. Maybe there's something you WANT to know. But I'm not brave enough to do what Melanie did at the What Am I Doing in Mexico Blog. She took questions from the "audience" and answered every one. Me? I'd be thinking, "All right, I'll answer that one. But not that one. And most definitely not THAT one."
But really what do you need to know? I very rarely tell people I am a writer. Writing seems too personal. I loved the New York Times obituary of Gregory McDonald (who wrote Fletch and died a couple of days ago). The obit said on airplanes, if his seat-mate asked what he did, he always said he was in "insurance." That usually stopped conversation. I thought, a man after my own heart.
I will usually tell people I have four kids. I will very rarely tell people if they were of one marriage, two marriages, three, or none. Or why their last names are different, and why those last names aren't MY last name. You don't NEED to know. Curious, perhaps. But is it important?
If you look at a life like a novel . . . what back story is important to the novel at hand? Every life has a narrative, and there are key events that shaped me--just as there are key events that shaped you. All this past weekend, I was pretty sure I was getting my M.S. symptoms back in my right leg. I was pretty quiet all weekend, it was disconcerting. I didn't tell anyone in my life at all. I did a lot of "what ifs." What if I end up not being able to walk again? How much would THAT suck? But what ifs NEVER lead to a good end, so I basically told my right leg to just get with the program, and after a few days, whatever it was settled down. But if this were a novel, it would be enough to know that once, for a year--three years ago exactly--I lost most of the feeling in my legs for 365 days--and what feeling I DID have was excrutiating pain 24/7. And then it went away. And it doesn't matter why it happened or what I thought as I went into the MRI tube. It doesn't matter what they saw. What matters is . . . some days, if I get very quiet, I wonder. And it would be enough for the novel at HAND, to do that in a sentence. We don't need a flashback. We don't need a whole drawn-out medical drama--that's ANOTHER NOVEL. Not this one today. This is a whole new novel. The 2008 version. I have other dramas and other battles and other joys. The 2005 version . . . just a little back story, none of which you NEED to know unless it impinges on 2008 in a significant way.
When ruthlessly cutting and editing, so much of back story centers on "what do you NEED to know?" AND WHAT NOVEL does it belong in? If it's not this one, as fascinating as YOU might think it is (and trust me when I say this, most people aren't as fascinated by your life as you are--the same can be said for character back stories) . . . yank it.
Thoughts? Are you ever tempted to put back story in that belongs to another novel?
18 comments:
I try to avoid a lot of back story, because I know how much it bores me in other people's books.
Sometimes when I run across lenthy sections of back story in a published piece, I wonder if it's merely padding. I wonder, because it seems to have so little to do with the story at hand.
Jude:
Sometimes, I do think it adds to quirks or whatever. But I tend to think it's not necessary and try to put things into dialogue. Like in my Billie Quinn books, you know Lewis is an eccentric. In one line, you learn he was supposed to end up a college professor but his lover was murdered by a serial killer so he went into forensics. That's all you ever know. In one book, I think you find out he's an only child. It's just not important. BUT . . . in dialogue, I hint at how nuts he is. Like in one scene someone talks about how they were in New Orleans together and he walked into a voodoo store and bought and entire collection of brains in formaldehyde. But you get it as a one-liner.
If you can't figure Lewis out from the story at HAND, then I haven't done a good job as a writer.
Kind of like when you meet someone and you are pretty dead-on about a first impression.
E
YES! Yes what? I'm incredibly tempted to explain away. I just cut an entire chapter of backstory out of my novel. Boo hoo and hooray in the same moment. I figure anything that needs a little explaining can be done when it's needed throughout the novel, or not.
Sometimes backstory is what a writer thinks provides motivation for the main character, and that the reader needs to know that. I am realizing - Not. So. Much.
Unless it's pivotal to moving the story forward, the backstory needs to remain in the back of the writer's mind.
I like your example of "is this something I would tell someone about myself?" I will use it as I move forward. I think you don't need as much backstory, in life or in books, to understand today as we may think!!
relation between real life and the creation of a novel. Back story is something I have struggled with at times.
Hi Amy:
I think there's much less we need to know abot one another than we think. :-)
E
Hi Travis:
I really think comparing it to real life helps a LOT. Like . . . to me, think of starting to date someone, hitting it off with someone. Little by little you might get to know someone . . . but in the end, wouldn't it be mostly--in terms of importance--only those areas of their life that now impacted your relationship that would be important. It might be FUNNY to learn your date once fell on her ass in gym class, you might be amused to hear something, or you might be sad to hear about how her dog died a few months before you started dating . . . but it would only be it, say, her psychotic ex-husband was still threatening her that you NEED to know. And I generally feel no one cares. I don't think my life is particularly interesting. It's funny to ME, and full of love, and it's chaotic. But it's a life. Just like anyone else's. Interesting only to the players in it. And even then sometimes not so much.
E
I sheepishly raise my hand as I am guilty of this. Baaaaaaah!
At least I am good at ruthless pruning!
ello:
Baaah back. :-)
E
Thanks for the link Erica. I struggle with backstory in my memoir but I'm ready to cut tons of "explanation." I'm having a hard time separating myself from the story.
My novel, on the other hand, barely has backstory and I love it.
I don't do it a lot, but sometimes. A few novellas ago, I put it in. Three times. I referred to it three times, maybe five sentences total. Too much, way too much.
I have to trust my readers have a far better memory than I do. They really do!
Hi Melanie:
Maybe you should write the memoir AS IF it was about a fictional Melanie. :-) When I ghost an autobiography, it was really easy for me to say, "Nope. Not important. Move on." But it wasn't ME. He kept saying, "But people need to know this." And I kept saying, "NOPE, they DON'T."
E
Hi Spy:
As I get ready to start the second part of the Magickeepers trilogy, I know it will be a battle.
E
For awhile I wrote too tightly. Now I might sprinkle backstory information in, but I do it on a "need to understand" basis.
Erica, I was thinking the same thing as I read this post. I haven't looked at it in months so I'm hoping I can stay more detached this time. My beta helped with that to a point, but I still think there's too much.
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