It’s the holy grail of story—keep momentum moving forward. But compelling story hinges on fully realized characters who leap off the page.
Believable characters and the world they live in 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 living in vividly relatable worlds that have shaped who they are at your story’s “point A,” and inform the journey they take in your manuscript.
Yet how can you fluidly weave all that depth and complexity into your story without stalling pace and story momentum by getting bogged down in info dumps, flashbacks, or just too much exposition?
In detailed, example-filled lessons, this course offers clear, practical guidelines for lacing in backstory to deepen and develop your characters and their surroundings; 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.
Complete with supplemental practice exercises and additional examples, “Seamlessly Weaving in Backstory” will help you master how to glance backward while always moving your story forward to keep momentum strong and readers hooked.
Here's What You'll Learn
- The 3 guidelines of backstory
- 6 backstory traps and how to avoid them
- The 3 main types of backstory: context, memory, and flashback--and how to use them
- How to ask yourself the questions readers may have in a scene, and determine what information is essential to share and when
- How to identify backstory elements
- How to seamlessly incorporate backstory into your own writing to make the story and characters jump off the page without dragging down your story
Who this course is for
If you…
- worry your characters and the world of your story aren’t as vivid on the page as they are in your head
- sometimes get “bogged down in backstory”—inadvertently stalling out your story to pave in information about your characters or setting
- struggle to balance “enough” backstory with “too much” or to determine what backstory is essential and relevant
- write fiction, narrative nonfiction, or memoir and want to bring your subjects to rich, full life for readers
…then “Seamlessly Weaving in Backstory” will help you develop fully fleshed, three-dimensional people and worlds readers feel they know, and bring your stories fully to life.
Hi, I’m Tiffany Yates Martin, founder of FoxPrint Editorial.
In my publishing career working as a book editor on hundreds of manuscripts—for major publishers and New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and USA Today bestselling and award-winning authors as well as newer writers—I have more than 25 years of experience in pinpointing what can keep an author's story from being as effective as it can be, and how to help authors make it marketable and competitive.
As an editor as well as a teacher leading workshops and seminars in writing and editing, I've developed clear, useful, hands-on tools for helping authors learn to spot these areas, along with practical techniques for addressing them, and I'm the author of a book based on those techniques, Intuitive Editing: A Creative & Practical Guide to Revising Your Writing.
"So amazing!"
“The comments we're getting on your webinar are all so amazing!”—Christina Hovland, president of the Golden Network
"Awesome session"
“AWESOME session! I learned so much today! I used to be a pantser, and my backstory was weak. As I am reworking my plot my backstory is a lot stronger—I’m really excited to go back through and look at a scene and analyze it with the new information. I just want to say thank you so much again.”—Heather Maddix, director of programming, Washington Romance Writers
"Very informative"
“Wanted to say thank you, it was very informative and I learned a lot!”—Alice Yu, Golden Network (attendee)
Curriculum
- Intro: The Three Main Types of Backstory (3:11)
- Context (10:54)
- Context example: The Labyrinth's Apprentice by Day Al-Mohamed (8:02)
- Context example for series: Bitter Falls by Rachel Caine (6:00)
- Context example: This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper (3:35)
- Memory (10:22)
- Flashback (11:44)
- Flashback example: Side Trip by Kerry Lonsdale (5:39)
- Example: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (4:28)
- Example: A House for Happy Mothers by Amulya Malladi (5:14)
FAQs
When does the course start and finish?
The course starts now and never ends! It is a completely self-paced online course--you decide when you start and when you finish.
How long do I have access to the course?
How does lifetime access sound? After enrolling, you have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like--across any and all devices you own.
What if I am unhappy with the course?
We would never want you to be unhappy! If you are unsatisfied with your purchase, contact us in the first 30 days and we will give you a full refund.