Does your character have a traumatic past? Great. You need to understand it’s not always a good idea to add backstories to your book without knowing why it’s necessary or not.
When writing your story ask yourself;
What event affected your character negatively? Let’s say this character hates men. Why does she hate men?
Now you might want to show your readers a sneak peek into her past (the backstory yeah?)
The backstory could be any of these (pending on you) she was raped by a gang of boys, assaulted by a male relative (uncle or father or step), sexually assaulted by a male friend she trusted.
A backstory should only happen because your character is already behaving in a certain type of way and your think your readers deserve to know more to understand the message of your story. Let’s say because she hates men, she never wants to get married and she’d been pushing the good guys away…
A backstory should also happen when your character has traits which questions her attitudes. Maybe she’s a lawyer who defends sexually assaulted women, she’s an alpha female boss who always speaks against rape or excuses for rape… she should also have a few circle of friends who happen to relate – maybe they’ve been cheated on, they’ve gone through heartbreaks… this will inspire her more to oppose men or their actions…
Storyboarding and outlining will also help you track your story and know when and when not to add a backstory.
These tips should help you avoid info dumping. Don’t add a backstory because you think it’s cool, add it because it’s necessary and do it scarcely. This will help your readers not get distracted or confused while reading the story.
If you found this tip helpful, let me know 👇🏾👇🏾
Zen… 
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