1. It is tempting to cheat by inserting letters, news articles, and pages from a book or diary to impart information. There may be instances where it works, but rarely. These shortcuts are generally boring in nature. Even worse, they are often placed in italics. If you insist on this, keep it short and simple. Pages of italics strain the eyes.
Backstory in the form of letters or journal entries tests a reader's patience. They draw the reader out of real time. A few readers adore them. Most don't. I scan read them. If they are too long, I skip over them. They rarely contain conflict and are a lazy way of delivering information.
If the contents can be summarized quickly through internal dialogue or dialogue, do that instead. We don't need to see a long news article about a body being found. Dick can read the article and comment on it to Sally, offering her the juicy parts. Most of us do this when we read something to someone across the kitchen table or office desk. We don't read the whole article. We react emotionally to the contents. We skip over the blah, blah, blah parts and read the good stuff.
"Reading Mom's diary is so surreal. I had no idea she was such a free spirit, a freethinker, and a party girl."
Jane reached for the book. "When did that change? She was so prim and proper."
Sally dodged her and kept reading. "Oh my lord, she slept with Phyllis's husband before they got married."
Jane attempted to grab the journal a second time. "Are you certain that's what she meant?"
Sally turned the page. "Last night was so romantic. We walked to the back of the garden and stood under the weeping willow, my favorite hiding spot. We kissed. He slowly undressed me. The night air was cold, but his skin was so warm."
"She never! That can't be our mom, can it?"
This type of delivery keeps the reader in real time and in the presence of characters they care about.
2. Short snippets of backstory can be revealed through inner dialogue and thoughts. What a character thinks reveals character. A conversation or situation can bring back pleasant or unhappy memories. Memories can differ. This is part of interiority. Dick can think:
Sally thinks she knows everything. Even when we were in kindergarten, she thought she knew everything. No one in this town ever changes.
This reveals that he has a history with the town, he has known Sally since kindergarten, and he isn't too pleased with her. In this example, he keeps the negative opinion to himself. The same information could be related as dialogue.
In the next example, Dick shares the same information and antagonizes Sally in the process.
"You thought you knew everything back in kindergarten, too. Nothing ever changes in this town."
3. Short summary can propel the story. Jane might drive past her old house, the one she shared with her ex-husband, and think:
I pulled up to the curb and left the engine idling. God, I missed the cottage. I loved the symmetry of it, the gables, and the white picket fence. I loved the rosebushes and the neighborhood cat that used to sun itself on the steps. I should have been sitting on the front porch swing, drinking tea, and reading a good book instead of driving past it like a lovesick teenager. It wasn't the affair or the divorce that gutted me. Dick wasn't worth a single tear. It was knowing that he had taken the cottage from me out of spite and moved in that lanky-skank ho. Killing him wouldn't make a difference. It would still belong to her. I'd have to figure out a way to drive them out.
This reveals that Jane used to live in the house, her aesthetic preferences, she likes tea and reading books, and she loved the house more than her ex. It gives us the story goal. You could have spent pages telling us about Jane's past and setting up her motivation. Instead, it was summarized in a few short, bittersweet sentences.
4. Backstory can be revealed though dialogue. Avoid horrible "As you know, Sally" information dumps. Make sure your characters would utter the words in a real conversation.
"As you know, Sally, our great-grandpa started this tea business in 1893 when he came over from old England. He built the place from the ground up."
Of course Sally knows. It's her grandfather. Let's slip this in with a little character conflict.
Dick ran a hand over the smooth wooden chest, tracing the Sinclair name and the year 1793. "I wish grandpa Mac had lived to see this."
Sally didn't look up from her phone. "He'd be 200 years old."
"Not the point." Dick lifted the lid, inhaling the sweet smell of peppermint. "He left England with a small tin of tea and a dream and look at us: international distribution, thirty varieties, new hybrids."
"And disgruntled employees, greedy investors, irrational vendors."
"Forget it. Let me buy you out. You'll never love the place the way I do."
"I'll never love anything the way you do. You're obsessed. You should leave this cave occasionally. Go on date. Get laid."
"Get stuffed."
Sally slipped her phone into her pocket. "Every chance I get. I'm hungry. Let's do lunch before I pass out."
"I'm serious. I want to buy you out."
"I'll think about it on a full stomach."
A character's hot buttons, prejudices, and conceits can rear their ugly heads during heated conversations. Backstory is best revealed through a verbal sparring match, not a lazy trot down memory lane. You add conflict when the characters block what needs to be said, reveal painful secrets, point out a person's flaws, or expose old wounds along the way.
5. Differing memories can cause conflict. Memory is fallible. If you ask three children about their formative years, each has a different rendition based on how they perceived their experience.
"You were always their favorite," Dick said.
Sally snorted. "Me? You were the golden boy, the heir. I was the spare and an afterthought."
"They let you get away with murder. I had to be perfect. I had all the pressure of their expectations. You were free to do whatever you wanted."
"You got all the attention. They didn't know I existed. I could have paraded around the mansion naked and they wouldn't have noticed."
"Oh, they noticed. They had massive arguments about you."
"On how to get rid of me."
Dick looked at the side by side caskets. "I guess it sucked for both of us."
"Now we can't even confront them over it." Sally walked away from the grave site.
Dick followed. "Don't be a stranger, okay?"
Sally opened her car door. "That's what we are, strangers. Maybe we should officially meet some day."
Masterful use of backstory elevates you from beginner to master craftsman.
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