Showing Versus Telling: Back Story Dumps

Another habit of newbie authors is to start a story out with pages and pages of back story. When this occurs, it is always a clue that the author has started the story too late or that the author has mistaken the reason back story comes into play in a novel.

We call excessive amounts of back story an information dump. An information dump is another word for telling. In this particular type of dump, it is a telling of everything that occurs in the character’s past.

So, if an author shouldn’t dump a load of back story on the reader, what good is it?

Well, not every bit of back story an author knows about a character or characters is important to the story. What that information does for the author is to help the author mold a character.

The back story that is important to the story is usually the catalyst for conflict and it is often better used to provide twists and turns in a story that make the reader want to turn the page.

In this example from my novel Charisse, the lead character had to drop out of law school due to her husband’s death. She has an interview for a judge as a law clerk, but she doesn’t know which judge in the circuit is holding the interview, but there’s one judge she really doesn’t want to see:

Charisse dropped the hand covering her eyes and leaned her head back. What if the interview she had today was with …? No. God wouldn’t put her in that position. What would she do if the interview ended up being with Gideon?

“What’s wrong, Mommy?” V.J. tugged at her skirt. “Don’t dry.”

Charisse bent down and held her son close, nearly dropping the phone. “Mommy’s having a rough morning. Are you finished eating?”

He nodded against her shoulder, and she knew. She’d do anything she had to do to keep her son in the only home he’d ever known, even if it meant working for the man who allowed Vance’s killer to go free.

A half a line of back story. That’s all it took to give the reader a reason to turn the page. Why? Because it leaves questions unanswered. Who is the killer? Why did the judge let him go free? Will Charisse have to face that particular judge for the interview?

Instead of stopping the front story to tell the character’s back story, just enough is given to the reader to let them know there is a past between hero and heroine, and uh-oh, it might not have been a good one. When it comes to back story, the old adage “less is more,” says it all.

Here’s more information about Charisse:

Charisse Wellman’s husband has been gone a year, and she’s about to lose the only home her son, V.J., has ever known. She’s quit law school but the money just isn’t there. Her only option is to work as a law clerk for her ex-friend, Gideon Tabor. The only problem: Gideon is the judge who let her husband’s killer go free, and Gideon doesn’t know the connection.

Gideon Tabor can’t believe that the woman interviewing for the job is the girl he loved in high school. Charisse is hesitant about accepting his job offer, and when she does, Gideon makes every attempt to apologize for his relationship-ending blunder in high school. Charisse accepts his apology, but she keeps him at a distance. When Gideon learns that Charisse’s anger actually stems from his release of the man who ran down her husband, he tries to explain, but Charisse doesn’t want Gideon’s excuses or the love he has to offer. She wants her husband’s killer to pay.