Back-story

[Just Bob]

I have come to a stage in my (science fiction) book where an info-dump seems in order. I am about to set out a large portion of the history of the world (or worlds) I have created, to set the context for the reader and give the characters listening a bit of perspective.
However, this means that I have to actually write out this history so that the speaker can provide it suitably tinged by their own prejudices and agenda, and I am now wrestling with the large amount of information I could potentially put in.
So, how much backstory do you tend to create for your stories? How much of it goes into the actual manuscript and how much is just for your own information? Do you write everything down somewhere, or does it live mostly in your head, and do either of these approaches present any problems for you?

[Brenda]

I really haven't written anything that wasn't Pern-based or contemporary Earth-based. I would definitely write some kind of overview for yourself - it's foolish to try and keep it straight in your head! Then when you think of something new you'll be able to see where it fits in with your other ideas.

[Anareth]

I don't write a lot of backstory down. This varies from author to author, but in my case I tend to keep some of it fluid. I have two series I'm working on, one urban fantasy, one cozy mystery, and my technique is a little different for each.

In the former, the entire setup is designed to be an infodump. I deliberately have protagonists who have no idea What Is Going On. The mentor characters can then provide explanations to them (and by extention to the reader) when they're needed, and it's presented in dialogue or the protags' observations as POV characters. And in this case, I don't write out HUGE amounts of backstory as I go. The entire universe is a work in progress, and I don't want to write myself into any corners.

In the case of the mystery, it quickly became apparent that even though I wasn't going to put the full story in the book right away, I had to know what had happened between the two progtagonists three years before the book starts (when their skating partnership breaks up, publically and painfully.) I couldn't convincingly write around it without knowing the details, so I sat down and wrote that out. It will probably get played out slowly, with both sides of the story presented, but I have the 'unbiased' version written down. And, of course, with the murder, I had to do a lot of backstory and plotting in advance!

[Ian]

All my story worlds (unless they're set on this one) are fully mapped, with notes on culture, costume, armour, weapons, architcture, currency, etc. , along with a brief history of the civilisation and any applicable royal/noble family trees. So pretty much everything I need is there when I need it (anything that isn't gets made up on the spot, & written down with the rest if it's going to be needed again).

[j_mercuryuk]

In my short experience, knowing and writing down the books back story important so you don't contradict yourself.

[Shalyn]

In my one fantasy, I'm worldbuilding first, then as I go along, mainly because of the style of magic that is used. The first book in this won't even touch on most of the backstory, but it'll be handy just in case it takes off.

The other fantasy I've written a little backstory for it, but it doesn't need much. Plus, most of my backstory is for my own edification, not the readers'.

[Yonuh Adisi Fiend Jedi]

Most of the time with me the story evolves as I write and somehow backstory elements automatically get put down within the story at the appropriate places. I have no idea how I do it.

For instance, In my romance novel "Flight of Destiny" one of my protaganists has a very big problem being alone with men. So when she and her passenger went down in a freak wind storm she was terrified. I didn't know exactly why she was terrified and it just flowed and as I wrote the back story came out without me even thinking of what the back story was.

I wouldn't suggest this method of course, it just happens that way with me most of the time.

However i am doing more planning for the next book in the series.


I hope this made sense, because I think I even lost what I was trying to say.:O :O :O

[persephone]

Depends. A lot of the time, I come up with a world, then never do anything with it. For the stuff I actually develop, I make it up as I go along, but write it down, so if I make something else up later, I can check back and make sure it's not contradictory. So I have no idea. Just make sure the info dump isn't hella boring. That's all I have to say, but that should be obvious anyway.