Mastering Backstory

It’s the holy grail of story—keep momentum moving forward. But compelling story hinges on fully realized characters who leap off the page…which means incorporating the past.

Believable characters don’t just spring to life fully formed at the beginning of your story. Ideally, if you’ve developed them fully, they are “real,” three-dimensional people with complex backstories and experiences that have shaped who they are at your story’s “point A,” and inform the journey they take in your manuscript.

Yet how do you discover and fully develop who your characters were that have led them to who they are now—without it taking over the story? What backstory belongs in the story and what doesn’t, and how much of it do you need to bring the characters to life without overwhelming the story? And how can you fluidly weave in all that depth and complexity without stalling pace and story momentum by getting bogged down in info dumps, flashbacks, or just too much exposition?

In detailed, example-filled workshops, this master class offers clear, practical guidelines for lacing in backstory to deepen and develop your characters; shares the three main ways of weaving in backstory with specific examples of each from published books; and presents practical techniques for creating rich, three-dimensional stories by developing and revealing who your characters were and are without slowing down the story of where they’re going.

We’ll spend one session focusing on flashbacks, which can bring your characters’ past to life—but if used unskillfully will stop the story cold. You’ll learn what makes a flashback essential, and how good ones can add meaning and impact to the main story; and how to assess whether and when flashbacks serve your story best—as well as how to draw readers smoothly and organically into and out of them without the “cheese factor” equivalent of an old-movie dissolve.

Complete with supplemental practice exercises, worksheets, and plentiful examples, “Mastering Backstory” will help you create compelling pasts for your characters while propulsively moving your story forward.

“Mastering Backstory” is an extensive, hands-on exploration of how to use this powerful story element to deepen your characters, bring them more fully to life, and powerfully invest readers in your story.

Part one: Understanding and Incorporating Backstory

• Backstory guidelines: You’ll learn the three main concepts to keep in mind to create backstory that feel organic to the story, invests readers, and brings characters more fully to life

• Backstory traps: They are legion and easy to fall into—but also easy to avoid once you know what to look for

• The three main types of backstory—what they are, how to use them, and how to weave them seamlessly into story to avoid stalling forward momentum:

o Context

o Memory

o Flashback

• Backstory in series: You’ll learn how to draw readers into each story while orienting them to the world of the series—without stalling forward momentum or burying readers in backstory.

Part two: Mastering Flashback

• What is flashback? How flashback is different from context and memory, the other main forms of flashback, but incorporates them

• Flashback pros and cons: How flashbacks can add immediacy and depth to a story, but also risk yanking readers out of it and diluting the story’s focus.

• Whether and when to use flashback: Determining how flashback serves your story (or doesn’t), and when it may be used most effectively to illuminate the past.

• How to weave flashback seamlessly into story:

o What role memory plays in flashback, and how to use its principles in creating seamless flashbacks

o How to transition smoothly in and out of flashback

o How to orient readers within a flashback

o Steps to building an effective flashback

o How to start a story with flashback—and whether you should

• How POV affects flashback

• Formatting flashback

• Flashback faux pas

Part three: Developing Relevant and Compelling Backstory

• How backstory provides character context—and what “context” means

• Why you don’t need a character bible

• Understanding the three main elements of character makeup to mine out relevant backstory

• The essential guidelines that let you develop richly fleshed, believable characters that feel fully integrated into the story

• Why not every character needs a “wound”

• Practical, actionable techniques for incorporating backstory on the page so readers see who your character is and why they do what they do:

o Mine backward from current action/situation (reverse-engineer)

o Build forward from what you know of character—how would she react, act, behave, etc., as a result of her past experiences, traits, situation, identity?

• Using consistency and contrast to create memorable, unique characters

Here's what you’ll learn

· The three main types of backstory and guidelines for using them: determining what’s relevant, painting in backstory one brushstroke at a time; using specifics to bring character to life, balancing enough backstory without overloading readers

· How to ask yourself the questions readers may have in a scene, and determine what information is essential to share when

· Backstory traps and how to avoid them

· How to seamlessly incorporate backstory to make the story and characters jump off the page without slowing down your story

· Using flashbacks effectively without stalling out the story or risking reader engagement

· How to transition smoothly in and out of flashbacks

· Starting a story with flashback—is it a “cheat”?

· How to mine out and develop backstory to create fully fleshed, cohesive characters

Who this course is for:

· Fiction writers who want to bring characters to three-dimensional, believable life for readers as vividly on the page as they are in your head

· Authors who get “bogged down in backstory”—inadvertently stalling out your story to pave in information about your characters

· Authors who struggle to balance “enough” backstory with “too much” or to determine what backstory is essential and relevant

· Authors who struggle with knowing how to weave flashbacks into the narrative without interrupting the narrative flow or the reader’s experience

· Authors who avoid flashbacks as “cheesy shortcuts”

Supplementary materials:

· PDF doc of the PowerPoint slides

· Extensive backstory workbooks, including summaries and overview of the key factors in creating and incorporating effective backstory, exercises, checklist, etc.

Instructor:

Tiffany Yates Martin has spent her entire career as an editor in the publishing industry, working with major publishers and New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling and award-winning authors as well as indie and newer writers. She is the founder of FoxPrint Editorial (named one of Writer’s Digest’s Best Websites for Authors) and author of Intuitive Editing: A Creative and Practical Guide to Revising Your Writing and her latest, The Intuitive Author: How to Grow & Sustain a Happier Writing Career. She is a regular contributor to writers’ outlets like Writer’s Digest, Jane Friedman, and Writer Unboxed, and a frequent presenter and keynote speaker for writers’ organizations around the world. Under her pen name, Phoebe Fox, she is the author of six novels.

Testimonials for Tiffany’s classes:

“I’ll sign up for ANY fiction-related class by Ms. Martin. She’s that good.” —Sandy W.

“Tiffany Yates Martin was absolutely riveting to watch, along with being very knowledgeable. I would have gone to an entire weekend seminar of just her.” —attendee, Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop, 2024

“What a terrific presentation! Couldn’t ask for better content—clear and concise—or better delivery. You have a very engaging, inspiring style. Love the handouts that you shared. Invaluable tools for my tool chest.” —Pamela B.

“By far one of the best lectures I attended at the conference. It gave me a much better understanding of point of view and how to self-edit. I left you a ‘five-star’ rating and review on the survey and subscribed to your newsletter. Thank you very much for all the useful information and tools for my ‘Writer’s Toolkit’ and certainly hope to see you again at another conference.” —Jason C.