Give just enough backstory in your novel's beginning

You’ve heard the reasons to limit how much back story opens your novel, but as Susan DeFreitas once heard it said, providing too little can make your readers “bump into the furniture” as they begin.

So, as always, the question is how to strike that perfect balance.

DeFreitas offers four techniques to help authors provide the right amount of backstory as their plot progresses in a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog.

And be sure to check out the comments for a slightly different take on the matter, depending on your genre.

Related posts

• How and when to spill your characters' secrets 

• Let your characters tell the backstory