About the Book
Book: Focused Backstory
Author: Carol Alwood
Genre: Non-fiction, writing resource
Release Date: June 26, 2019
Click here to get your copy.
In My Opinion
For anyone starting their writing journey (or even nonwriters who are just thinking about it), backstory is your character’s history that, ideally, will be sprinkled through any fictions (and in a few cases such as memoirs and biographies, nonfictional) stories. These breadcrumbs lead the reader to the ultimate climax when the lie (known or unknown) is exposed and the character experiences a shift in their reality.
This is a delicate balance for authors to navigate. You don’t want to frontload your book with backstory. It not only bogs it down, detracting from the pace, it also bores the reader, making them lose interest.
In Focused Backstory, Carol Alwood uses her own challenges and experiences as an author to provide others with a useful resource. Using her own work as well as popular books and movies, Alwood breaks down the process of creating character backstory.
There are worksheets and character questions to aid in hashing out the backstory and how it has shaped the person they are at the beginning of the book and leading the way for that perspective to change through circumstances, mentors, and more.
Overall, this book is a great resource for new authors or anyone who has received feedback regarding too much backstory in the first chapters of their work.
Disclosure statement:
I receive complimentary books from publishers, publicists, and/or authors, including NetGalley. I am not required to write positive reviews. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
About the Author
More from Carol
Focused Backstory resulted from a personal quest to please industry critics who suggested I keep character history out of the first pages of my novels. My initial questions to this advice were: What? Why? I searched for resources to figure out how to write a more powerful beginning without relying on the past but found little help. On a mission to find answers, I studied popular books, television and movies to abstract what made stories work and — boom! I found it! We can break down backstory into simple pieces to use flexibly in any story without compromising artistry. This book provides definitions, examples, worksheets, templates, and comics to help writers study the art of using powerful character histories to keep readers turning pages. I’m so excited to offer this resource and hope it will empower your writing as it has mine.
Giveaway
To celebrate her tour, Carol is giving away the grand prize of a $25 Amazon gift card!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
https://promosimple.com/ps/f384/focused-backstory-celebration-tour-giveaway
Blog Stops
To read more reviews and gain extra entries into the giveaway, visit the tour landing page here.
This book sounds like a fascinating read.
This book sounds very interesting and like it would be a Big help. Thank you so much for sharing about this book and for the book review. God Bless you.
Looks like a very practical book.
Hello! Thanks so much for sharing your book with us. Always fun reading about another book to enjoy.