AVOID THE INFODUMP
Back story is essential to flesh out your story, but how do you convey it without slowing down your opening pages’ pace? Margaret James has some answers
Margaret James
Those vital first pages of a novel – what should always and what should never be in them?
It’s going to depend on what kind of novel you are writing, but there are a few things most of us should probably avoid when trying to hook new or even faithful readers.
It can be very tempting to start a new story by giving your reader an overview of the situation to date, and/or a potted history of the central character or even characters. This kind of thing is called information dumping and is guaranteed to put most readers right off.
When we start to read a novel, most of us want to be drawn into the action with the very first sentence or at least the very first paragraph, not have to wade through pages of essentially static narrative before anything actually happens.
While you’re reading a novel, do you like to hear the characters speaking, or do you prefer to be told what was said by the author?
I’m guessing most of us prefer to listen to the characters themselves rather than be told what they said. Here’s the opening of Thursdays in the Park by Hilary Boyd: