Tuesday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

NAIL YOUR CHARACTER’S BACKSTORY WITH THIS ONE SIMPLE TIP

By: Robert Wood

Despite being a necessary and enjoyable part of most narratives, backstory is a bit of a storytelling anomaly. The more complex or involving a story the author is telling, the more time they’re forced to spend outside it. Readers want to know where fascinating characters came from, and that means exploring events you may never have imagined.

In this article, I’ll be exploring how much backstory is appropriate for your book, before offering up one simple tip to writing a believable backstory that’s so good it’ll add to the realism of your entire novel.

How much backstory do you need?

The amount of backstory you need correlates with the complexity of your story. Observe the following story:

Once upon a time there was a princess. She was captured by a dragon. Her father the king offered a lot of treasure to anyone who would rescue her. A prince tried to rescue her but couldn’t. He asked a wizard for help. The wizard used a spell that made him invisible, then he was able to slay the dragon and save the princess. The prince and princess got married afterwards. The End.

With a story like this the reader requires zero backstory. Where did the dragon come from? Why would he kidnap a princess? Who cares? The above story lacks the two factors that make backstory a must: complexity and immersion.

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Read the full article HERE!

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

1. Seven Extremely Good Reasons to Write the Ending First - Writers Write http://ow.ly/ykWgj
2. Permission Trumps Everything In Email Marketing | Bourn Creative http://ow.ly/yl050
3. Facebook Marketing for Small Business - Mari SmithThe Marketing Agents http://ow.ly/yl1lY
4. Writer Unboxed » Running From Talent: And Your Next Chapter http://ow.ly/yl3cF
5. 6 Steps to Balance Your Editing: Plot vs. Characters | Jami Gold, Paranormal Author http://ow.ly/yl4Fb
6. How to Use Facebook Audience Insights: What Marketers Need to Know | Social Media Examiner http://ow.ly/yl5Fh
7. 9 Powerful Tips To Help Freelancers and Bloggers Sell Digital Products : @ProBlogger http://ow.ly/yl5OZ
8. Raising the Stakes | Writers In The Storm http://ow.ly/yl6vK
9. Nail your character’s backstory with this one simple tip http://ow.ly/yl8EK
10. The Writers Alley: Getting To Know Your Character: The Challenge http://ow.ly/ylabm
11. Divas on Writing: How to Revise a Manuscript - Write Divas http://ow.ly/yleOO
12. Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing: #10…There is Only One Way to Publish a Book | http://ow.ly/ylfjb
13. Creating a short story collection | Indies Unlimited http://ow.ly/ylg03  
14. BookMarketingBuzzBlog: What Should You Say In A Guest Blog Post? http://ow.ly/ylg4I
15. Life Sentences: The Pleasure of teh Typo | The Passive Voice | http://ow.ly/ylgur
16. Tips On Public Speaking For Authors, Creatives And Other Introverts | The Creative Penn http://ow.ly/ylgFm
17. Interview with Jane Friedman: How Much Attention Should You Pay to Book Design? — The Book Designer http://ow.ly/yliT3
18. Anne R. Allen's Blog: How to Plan a Novel without Actually Outlining: 3 Awesome Tips from Nathan Bransford http://ow.ly/ymnuQ

Happy writing and running, Kathy