Information dump Writing backstory into a novel or delivering information in an effective way can be challenging. Backstory refers to events that happened in the past, and information is anything the reader needs to know in order to understand the story. If you don’t study how best to include information and backstories into your novel, you’re likely to fall into one of the following mistakes. 1. Too much information Generally, the reader needs less information than you think they do. So go through the information you have about characters, events and the world in which the events take place and cut out anything that doesn’t directly impact on the present story. You’d be surprised at how much information will come out simply as part of writing scenes. Writing backstory in may not be necessary at all. If no event is linked to a piece of information, then you don’t need to include that information. In terms of the story, it’s irrelevant. Character backstory The author … [Read more...]