by Tim Suddeth @TimSuddeth
This week I read a novel that had all the necessary ingredients to keep me reading past my bedtime. (The ultimate compliment to a writer.) Instead, I had to force myself to finish. (Oops.)
The intriguing characters were there. The setting invited you in. The plot was unique and engaging. It even had a dog.
But the writing, not so much. And the problem boiled down to one thing: too much backstory. Backstory is what had happened to the characters before this story began. And backstory is important. Let’s face it, the more interesting a character’s life, the better the story. The issue comes when so much backstory is dumped in the narrative that it takes the reader out of the action.
