Writing Quote Wednesday: The Backstory

“Before you can tell others your story, you have to tell yourself its prequel.”

—K.M. Weiland, OUTLINING YOUR NOVEL: MAP YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS

In other words, as the writer, you have to know the backstory of your story. The reader doesn’t necessarily need to know very many of those details.

In the Weiland book, OUTLINING YOUR NOVEL, the idea is that you do a lot of the work before you write a draft. That way, when you write your draft, many of the pieces are already in place. You spend less time floundering.

I do things backwards.

In most areas of my life, I’m a planner. A detailed, make-a-million-lists planner. But when it comes to writing drafts, I’m more of a pantser. I tend to see where the story leads. In other words, I fly by the seat of my pants.

A few weeks ago I was overwhelmed trying to figure out where to start with some revisions of my middle grade novel. I had lots of notes from friends, but several themes kept coming up. I decided to conquer them one by one. I wrote down each revision on an index card. I divided them into beginning, middle, and end. I’ve been working on them one-by-one (here’s where the planner inside of me takes over).

So what does this have to do with backstory?

I realized a pattern. Many of the questions/suggestions have to do with backstory. What happened before this story ever took place? My protagonist is 11. Some of these questions have to do with things that happened when she was 3. Am I going to write that story in the actual book? No way.

But I need to know what happened, so I can tell a better story in the present.

I just wished I could have anticipated all of these questions BEFORE I wrote my umpteenth draft….