Balancing Player Backstory Without Slowing the Action
Sharing a player’s history can be necessary to explain their motivations or mindset. However, it is crucial to weave backstory into the narrative without halting the game’s momentum. Here are some techniques that can help you keep the action flowing.
The 5 w’s of story – where, what, why, who and when – can all change to create variety and interest. None of these elements must change. The characters in your novel or your setting could remain fairly constant. Yet change opens up possibilities for new developments and intriguing new scenarios. These keep your novel exciting and interesting. To avoid your story stagnating in a single location, shift somewhere new – another town or country, from the city to the countryside or vice versa. Make sure any change of setting makes sense in relation to the story.
“If the middle of the game feels sluggish, don’t hesitate to cut the backstory short.”
This is the first article in a series on developing and integrating backstory. I will share more insights in upcoming posts. Feel free to comment on topics you would like me to cover next!
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It’s great that you share these tips with young and aspiring writers. Even though they may not be writing novels, I believe it will be very useful for them to learn something new from a really skilled writer like you. I’d be glad to hear some recommendations on how a writer can develop the plot without cutting down chapters (I often see it in the books of young writers). Anyway, thank you for this post, it is very informative!
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I fully agree with your last point, but I also think finding the right way to develop relationships between key players would be excellent. That would be very engaging.