28
Rant: People who write a character's entire backstory in the first paragraph
Was reading in a workshop last week and this person spent the first three pages describing how their protagonist's parents met, their childhood pet, and every minor trauma before the story even started. I get that context matters but by page 5 nothing had actually happened. It felt more like a biography than a story. Does anyone else find that detail dumps just kill the momentum? How do you weave in backstory without stopping the action cold?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
annaw7316h agoMost Upvoted
Page 3 and still no plot, just a pet eulogy.
3
tylerpark14h ago
A 50,000 word novel about a cat staring at walls? That is either a work of genius or a cry for help and I honestly cannot tell which. @adamk95 you might actually be my new hero because that level of commitment to a cat's blank expression is genuinely impressive. Three pages for a dog's tail wagging during a storm is insane though, nobody needs that many details about canine anxiety. I bet your mom's reviews are the only ones that matter anyway. Get back to the plot before i start writing a eulogy for this thread.
6
adamk9515h ago
Right, because who needs plot when you can have three pages describing how your dog's tail wagged during a thunderstorm. I'm the guy who'd write a ten-page eulogy for a houseplant I killed by overwatering, so I'm not exactly one to judge. My cat's memorial consists of a 50,000 word novel about her staring at walls, and it's getting rave reviews from my mom. When do we get back to the actual story?
4