Zara Altair: Share your characters' backstories sparingly in a mystery

Your characters’ backstories don't just serve your readers — they serve you, the writer.

But, says Zara Altair, that’s why you should keep the majority of it to yourself when writing a mystery.

Certainly, you’ll want to reveal bits and pieces of key characters’ past, to illustrate why they behave and react the way they do.

The emphasis, though, is on “bits and pieces.”

Altair explains her best practices for when and how to share a character’s backstory in a post on her Write Time blog.

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