This is a great website. I have a question about backstory. In the Devil Wears Prada doesn’t the prelude or first chapter start with main character in a panic attack about her job? But then the following chapter f

This is a great blog! Thank you!

In the Devil Wears Prada doesn’t the prelude or first chapter show the main character in a panic attack about her job? But the next chapter is a flash back to how she got the job. Would this be considered a successful employment of backstory early on?

I think it’s because my writing process includes very little prep. I sort of sit down and start telling a story as I learn/create/write it.

Well, no more! lol. I’m putting the action up front from now on!

Flashbacks are a little different because they are usually real scenes, but they’re just not in chronological order. Again, because they’re real scenes, they’ll probably be more entertaining than an info dump.

Theresa

My purpose of the prologue was to gain my heroine sympathy because she is very focused and hard-edged because of what happened, and without her actions in context, the readers may have found her unsympathetic and bitchy. My purpose of chapter one was that I wanted a “neutral” third party to “introduce” the readers to the hero and heroine who had very strong feelings for each other, but the primary feelings were anger and resentment for things that happened in the past. If I let my readers see the hero through the eyes of the heroine first, or vice versa, the reader wouldn’t have liked them. But Nick was the perfect POV character because he cared for both and he “saw” the big picture and could understand what both of them did, so the readers could see that there were worthy people.

Backstory is hard–I think about it alot. It’s one of the most important things to the story because it sets up motivation, but is often used poorly by way of info-dumps. But . . . it’s still crucial. I often use flashbacks, but have *heard* that you *can’t* do it. Fortunately, I never heard that rule before I sold, LOL.