How Much Back Story Should I Include
A writer asks how much back story is too much for a novel. Tips for knowing how much back story to include and where to put it.
My Passion's Pen
Helping to polish what your passion pens.
Archive for the tag “flashbacks”
The Hidden EVIL of Flashbacks
I’m especially loving these latest posts, it’s as if Kristen is speaking directly to my present struggles. Excellent advice, as always.
So you want to be a writer. Okay. I’ll be blunt because that’s my superpower. Check your conscience at the door keyboard. Writers are not civilized humans. In fact, we are the opposite. We are the reptilian brain to the power of a million. We probe and prod and poke the weak places. Great storytellers are nothing short of sadists. We take a perfectly empathetic/likable person, toss their life in a Vita-Mix and blend, churning that mixture from Level 1-1000.
That is called conflict.
Stories are about people with problems to be solved. Everything else is a travel brochure.
One of the reasons I LOVE teaching craft is I get to see the work/stories of other writers. Recently, I held my First Five Pages class and could hear the collective groans when I said, “NO FLASHBACKS. EVER.” But I am a benevolent dictator and instructed those submitting pages, that if…
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My Passion's Pen 