The Best Way to Count Is 2, 1, 3!
Writer: Cortney Donelson
It turns out that our elementary school teachers were wrong. The best way to count is 2, 1, 3!
My first blog with Charlotte Readers Podcast, “Everything Starts with the Foot,” encouraged writers to develop the ending of their stories first. I suppose I’m backward in everything I do. Now, I’m telling writers not to compose the sequel but the prequel of their stories as a book two (i.e., embrace Star Wars style when it comes to your novels).
Let me explain.
As writers, we’re taught to avoid including too much backstory; it will alienate readers who want to get right to character assessment and action. Readers want to dive into formulating their opinions and building their relationship with your characters from the start, but to do that, they want to see how the characters behave in the present, not learn how they grew up or hear about the past trauma that happened to them. At least not yet.
The number-one rule I’ve heard is “Don’t relate more than the briefest backstory in the first chapter,” and I agree. Those first critical pages will determine whether a reader stays up past their bedtime or logs your book as a DNF. Don’t give them any reason to put down your book early by going into long narratives about events that happened in the past.
The better option is to weave a bit of backstory throughout a moving plot, often through dialogue and action, to help it flow naturally and stay compelling. We all know the backstory is the foundation of every character’s worldview, motivations, and even personality. It’s crucial for understanding a character’s drive and choices.
However, the full measure of the backstory is typically only known between the author and the character. The past isn’t the story we tell or the story the readers learn most about. Unless it should be!
Meaning, what if the backstory was critical to the making of your unique and irreplaceable character? What if your tale is so character-driven that the backstory is a major story in itself?
Enter my recommendation: Write the prequel to your story as a “book two.”
George Lucas saw tremendous benefit (and success) in employing this technique when he created and released the Star Wars saga. He answered “technical and storytelling reasons” when asked why he started with Episode IV. Even Mark Hamill’s recommended viewing order is the release order, not the chronological order. Viewers today, if they follow his advice, should begin with the Star Wars original trilogy.
So it can be with your book series. Once you’ve crafted and released book one, go back and dive into a character or two’s childhood. Tell that epic (stand-alone) backstory that influenced your protagonist (or antagonist). As I did, take multiple personality tests and dig into the psychology of your character(s). You intimately know them from book one, but become them for book two. Give your readers the story before the story of how your characters arrived at the original book.
It’s a great way to build your readership and explain the bizarre lens through which your most interesting characters see the world. Plus, it’s a great way to help you better know your characters for any future books (like book three, the sequel!).
Didn’t plan to write a series? It doesn’t matter! If you took your MC, or even your antagonist, and dug a little deeper, you’d find a backstory worth telling. After all, everyone has a story worth telling—including our characters.
Enjoy researching and writing, and if it turns into a series you weren’t expecting, even better! Remember, sometimes it pays off to count like this: 2, 1, 3.
About the Writer
Cortney Donelson is the founder and principal writer at vocem, LLC, a writing services business that offers ghostwriting and editing. Though she’s written over a dozen books, she can call four her own, including her newest release, Baby Girl Jones (March 2024), the Book Two prequel to her debut novel, The Billionaire’s List. Cortney has called the Charlotte area home for over twenty-five years. She enjoys chai lattes, Wordle, and hiking and paddle boarding with her husband—and discovering new and witty strategies for parenting and coaching their teenager and young adult child.
Website: yourvocem.com