Backstory Blahs

I hate writing backstory. Actually, that's not true. I hate trying to figure out if it needs to be in the story or not. I love writing it. And I do it almost unconsciously, even though I know a little goes a long way. And yet inevitably, it always worms its way into my supposed to be action-packed first pages. Backstory, as probably most of you know, are the details about a character or place that help you understand the past and understand the context of what's happening now.

Here's an example...
I parked my silver Lexus in one of the diagonal spots in front of the pharmacy. The Lexus was one of the toys my ex-husband had purchased before deciding he was too young to settle down, four years into our marriage. But I'd fought for and won the car in my settlement, and I took great pride in abusing it in his stead.

This little bit of history (which is from Bitter Pill, the first book of the Rennie Harlow series) tells you that Rennie, the main character, is divorced and rather bitter about the situation and her ex-husband. You can also tell that they are or were wealthy enough to afford a Lexus. It also gives you a little glimpse of the ex-husband's character from her perspective.

But what I'm finding is that as I write books in a series, the amount of backstory keeps climbing. So much so that as I work on my current project, I get frustrated because it feels like every other paragraph is backstory. Somebody says, xyz. And in order for readers to understand and/or remember events in a previous book, you have to explain why what they said was important. But it dramatically slows down the pace of the story and it doesn't take much backstory to turn into too much. We've all read books like that where the main characters meet in a train station or something and we not only learn about the characters from birth to this point but also about the development of the train station, which may or may not even be relevant, before we get to any action. Boring!

So, I've been trying to write without putting any backstory in because I don't need it and I can always go back later and add it in, only where it's needed. That worked for about the first chapter, now it's creeping back in again!!! It feels like I need it there. So, I'm trying to decide now, do I mess with trying to remove all that stuff now or do I just keep moving forward, knowing that I'll have to cut a bunch of it out later? Plus, I'm trying to remember what I've read about backstory. You do need some in there to understand what's happening and to generate some kind of emotional connection between the readers and the main characters. Otherwise, there's no depth whatsoever. That's another thing I'm worried about...take out too much and this thing will be about as deep the snow in Florida.

All right, so I think I've got to keep moving forward and go back and remove whatever I don't need at the end. Because right now, I don't know if I can tell what I do or don't need yet. Plus, I don't want to get hung up on trying to perfect the first few chapters.

This is the point where I always try to remember Anne Lamott's advice -- allow yourself to make mistakes. Write a sh#tty first draft. Then clean it up. Sometimes if you don't make those mistakes, you miss something in the process.

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In other news...
-I'm getting ready to submit my order to Earthly Charms. I'm ordering postcards, bookmarks, keychains and bookplates. Woohoo! I'm so excited. : )

-And I submitted my two contest entries to the Poem or Page Contest. I may try to post them here in my journal, so you can have a look and see what you think. I'm actually kind of proud that I submitted them two days in advance of the deadline. Last year, I was running to the post office from work to get the envelope postmarked in time!

Talk to you later!