Okay, I'm writing a story set far, far in the future. There has been a lot of backstory that's important to the plot of the novel, but I'm not sure how to reveal it all. My MC is a student, so I'm thinking of having it explained during a history lesson. Would that be kind of cliché?
There once was a cat. He wasn’t particularly fat. Fuzzy was his favorite mat. And really, that was that.
Oh, but did you really think so? Keep reading, it’s just the start of the show! And as for how far this tale will go… Well, even the cat doesn’t know.
Long, drawn out history lessons not only are cliche, but they bore the reader and can be frustrating to them as well. Why? Because we don't really care. We want to find out how this fits into our character's lives, not just that all this happened.
My tip- Either get a really good hook scene so the reader is willing to go through all that history, or slowly bring it out as your character lives his/her day-to-day life. He notices this and the backstory for that item goes like so.
Hope I helped!
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo
Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
Or! If your backstory is really interesting and complicated, prequels may be needed.
Ubi caritas est vera, Deus ibi est.
"The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly." ~ Richard Bach
Yeah, there's been a couple of wars that happened. More like two wars that lasted for almost two hundred years in total. I plan on writing about those, but so far, I'm writing about the Third War. And even with the first war, it's set about ninety years in the future.
There once was a cat. He wasn’t particularly fat. Fuzzy was his favorite mat. And really, that was that.
Oh, but did you really think so? Keep reading, it’s just the start of the show! And as for how far this tale will go… Well, even the cat doesn’t know.
