Love a Good Back Story
Ah, the back story.
I have been addicted (!!) to this album for a week now. Love his blues voice. And holy hell, it's Chrissie Hynde, for God's sake! And the music is wonderful--guitars, singing, LYRICS. But when you read their back story . . . and if you see them being interviewed, it's even more meaningful. Two songs (Never Drink Again and If You let Me) are amazing on the emotional spectrum. The former makes me tear up (yes, a week later, having heard it 50+ times now), and the second lets me rock out at my desk.
But back to that back story . . . .
Because I think there's a lesson there for writers who have the urge to dump back story into their writing.
We don't need to know it all. The words and lyrics speak to it, from opening riff to final song, and knowing just ENOUGH of the back story enhances this album.
I feel the same way in most books and definitely my own writing. Parcel it out, a hint here or there. A bottom line and away we go.
To me, if I meet someone new, I can pretty much sum it up: This is what you need to know about me--up to you to walk or stay. Mom, four kids, writer, messy life, smart-mouthed, edgy, earthy. How I got this way . . . long story. And maybe I'll tell you in bits and pieces. In the meantime, let's go.
So . . . is there a book, album, piece of art, or movie that was enhanced by the back story? And how do you decide how much back story to include in your writing?
21 comments:
I try to keep it to a minimum and try to parcel it out. In particular, because the Derek Stillwater novels are so tightly focused on limited timelines--28 hours, 12 hours, 2 days, 8 hours, etc., it's better if I keep backstory to a minimum and concentrate on the NOW. Still, the WIP gives us more of Derek's backstory. I've also considered writing a DS novella that would involve a lot of flashbacks and e-publish it.
Mark:
Interesting . . . the idea of "extras." When my sister read The Roofer, she called me and said, "Tell me what happens next." She wanted to know what happened to Tom. I was surprised that . . . in essence, the book engaged her enough that she wanted me to make up more about the characters--and she wasn't the only person. I had more readers contact me and ask me if I couldn't give Tom a happy ending of his own and redeem him. So I think sometimes . . . readers want more. But for me, I always feel like what's on the page is what's "meant" in some cosmic sense to be in the book.
I've learned from a wise sage that back story is best when delivered as part of the story, either with dialogue or random thoughts that move the story along. Right, wise sage? ;-)
And I have to say that although always in love with Sting, I appreciated him more after reading his book, Broken Music. For every song written there's history backing up the lyrics.
In Derek's case, in just about every book I've mentioned him having some experiences in Pakistan and Cuba. Particularly in Cuba, I have a pretty good idea that he escaped rather hurriedly and crossed the Straits of Florida on a stolen kayak. So I've had a notion of telling the story of that crossing and what was going on his mind at the time with flashbacks, while at the same time giving an idea of what went to hell in Cuba. I think it would be a fairly disorderly, introspective novel and rather outside what most publishers would be interested in publishing by me at this stage of my novel-writing career, but I think readers might like it. It's on my eventually-to-do list. Or I could restructure it as a "prequel" but I'm not sure that's the way to go either.
Kath:
To me, back story should be that enhancement--and not the main show. :-)
Mark:
I like that idea . . . that's an extra that makes total sense.
Thanks again. I started to write this morning thinking what's next? After reading this I realized that previous chapter was showing back story (not a telling dump). This didn't have to happen last week, it could have happened four years ago.
Love ya! Thanks for the help.
Richmond:
:-)
xoxoxoxo
E
I just got spanked with it in crits on SCAR. Thing is, some people want MORE and some people want LESS. Sheesh.
Backstory could be fun to play with via links in eBooks. I've been thinking a lot about this. Right now the best bet in an enhanced eBook would be to use links to songs, to video, to maps and images, and maybe to backstory as well. So the interested can read it if and when they like, others can just stick with straight prose.
More on backstory: my book is SF with some weird ideas. I think explaining a few things about how this culture came into being is valid for suspension of belief. Sometimes in SF the characters accepting it is not enough. I wrote some graphs sprinkled around; I may delete them though in revision as I find better ways to integrate the information.
Starbucks:
I agree. Songs and videos would be cool. But I am not 100% sure about back story--it would depend. I find the purity of a book's words to be what I want to read--and if it didn't "make the cut" then I don't know that I'm interested. I don't watch extras on DVDs.
As for your book--I WOULD probably want the history--but I am not a SF reader, so it may be that I NEED it to suspend disbelief or immerse me in the world.
Sort of... but it was backwards. I saw Seabiscuit when I was just recovering from CFS. I remember it got to a point when--quite practically, not depressed or anything--I felt that there was no point to my life and it really should end. I couldn't much get out of bed, I was in pain all the time, I quite literally could not take care of myself but was too proud to ask anyone for help, and I couldn't THINK. And it had been that way for six or seven years, and there wasn't any hope of recovery.
So anyway, I totally connected with the whole movie, and I didn't understand why. There's the part where the trainer saves Seabiscuit from being put down. He explains: "You know, you don't throw a whole life away just 'cause he's banged up a little."
And I BAWLED my eyes out. It totally felt like the whole movie (and later the book, when I read it) was written to my experience, even though it had nothing at all to do with CFS.
So later, when I read an interview with the author and learned how she struggled with CFS too, it made perfect sense to me. I was surprised, but also not at all.
I'm a big fan of that bit of backstory that pops up after you think you already know a character. Col Brandon in Sense and Sensibility, for instance. You think you know his backstory, but you just know the label he's been given. (Poor, tragic dude.) Turns out he's not just a 'poor, tragic dude' but a passionate man of action. He just doesn't yap about it all the time :) Now, if I could only learn how to hold back like that in my own writing......
I think this is a slow lesson we all learn in writing and in life. I think the first comment on the first critique I ever recieved hit me with cut the backstory!
That and exclaimation marks!!!!
:)
Natasha:
i LOVED (!!) that movie. And I had read about the author too. Very inspiring.
Gingersnap:
BRILLIANT example. Yes. You "think" you know, but then . . . you don't know the whole of it. Love him. Love him in the movie, of course, too!
Aimless:
LOL! I used to back story dump . . . usually my first attempts were chapter of backstory, then set-up of novel. OR . . . set-up of novel, then chapter of back story. It's a tough habit to break!
A good example for Middle Grade is Inkheart and the character of Dustfinger. By everyone's reaction, you know there's a backstory but Cornelia Funke only dishes out the info in small pieces. And at that, she alternates info that makes him look like a good guy with info that makes him look like a bad guy. What a cool character. What a cool way to handle a mysterious, complicated and very conflicted character. I practically inhaled that book.
Gingersnap:
:-)
Another great one! Now you have me thinking!!!!
I think that all the songs Stevie Nicks wrote herself are all compelling thanks to how much back story each of them have.
Think about most songs that tell a story. Much of the time they reference one, maybe two events that inspired the conception of the song.
But if you think about Stevie's writing style(and watch a couple of interveiws) you would find that nearly every other line seems to spring from a different time and place in Stevie's life.
THe song "Sara" was sixteen minutes long when she first recorded it with Fleetwood Mac. One verse for everyone that meant something in her life. The final version was just a meltdown of all the most important lines from the original.
It's like crushing a year's worth of journal entries into a three minute piece of music.
JT:
A brilliant addition to the conversation--great analogy, too, about the journals.
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