Transcript:

Nothing slows a story faster than an info dump.

You know the kind — pages of history, family trees, or magical laws before we’ve even met the main character.

Writers include them because we care about our worlds and our characters. We’ve built these intricate systems, designed every corner of a kingdom, traced every family line — and of course, we want readers to know it all.

But readers care most about what’s happening right now.

When it’s done well, readers don’t even realize they’re learning your character’s past. They just feel the weight of it.

Think about the way The Hunger Games hints at Katniss’s father through songs and short flashes of memories, or how The Handmaid’s Tale filters Offred’s memories through fragments of thought. The past lingers, but it never halts the story; rather, it enhances it.

So today, let’s talk about how to weave backstory naturally — the kind that deepens your story without drowning it.

Hi, I’m C. Sloan Lewis, your virtual writing coach, and my goal is to help you not just improve your writing, but to support you as a writer. Welcome to my channel!

Show, Don’t Tell

Instead of telling readers what happened, show how it shaped your character.

Don’t say, “She grew up poor.” Show her counting coins before buying bread, or flinching when someone wastes food.

Backstory feels alive when it’s revealed through action, dialogue, and choice. Each glimpse should feel like a window into the past, not a history lesson.

And when it comes to the world around the character, remember: not everything you’ve created needs to make it onto the page.

If you’ve developed a whole pantheon of gods, but only one actually affects your main plot, we don’t need a twelve-page divine roll call. The rest can live in your notes, and it’ll still enrich the story, even if readers never see it.

A great example of this is The Witcher. We don’t get an encyclopedia of monster lore upfront — we learn as Geralt encounters each creature. The world unfolds with the story, not before it.

Why Writers Over-Explain

If you’ve ever caught yourself info-dumping, you’re not alone. Usually, it comes from one of three places:

1. Excitement. You’ve built something amazing and want to share it all right now.
2. Fear. You’re worried readers won’t “get” the world or characters unless you explain everything.
3. Control. You want to make sure readers interpret things the “right” way.

But trust me — a little mystery keeps readers hooked. Curiosity is what pulls them forward. Let them wonder why a scar matters or how two characters know each other. When the truth lands later, it’s so much more satisfying.

Timing & Pacing

Here’s the golden rule: Readers don’t need everything up front. They just need enough to understand this moment.

Drop breadcrumbs, not encyclopedias.

If your first chapter is packed with who, what, when, and why — pause. Ask yourself: What does the reader need to know right now to care about the scene in front of them?

Reveal the rest when the moment calls for it — like when a trigger sparks a memory, or a secret slips in an argument. That’s how you build curiosity and momentum.

Look at Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. We don’t learn everything about Voldemort or Hogwarts in chapter one. We discover the world through Harry’s eyes, piece by piece, just like he does.

Techniques

There are so many subtle ways to reveal backstory. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Dialogue hints.

A simple, “Not since last time,” can carry a world of history — without spelling it out. It also intrigues the reader, which keeps them reading.

2. Internal thoughts or memories.

Use short flashes or emotional triggers, not full flashbacks. Let a smell, sound, or phrase pull the reader into a fragment of the past. My favorite kind of flashback is when we don’t have a clear line between the past and present; it’s all one emotional blur.

3. Objects and setting.

An old photograph, a worn weapon, a half-burned letter — these things speak if you let them. When a character interacts with them, we glimpse into their history through the world around them. For example, if a soldier pauses at the sound of fireworks, we don’t need to be told about the battlefield — we feel it through that one moment.

Common Mistakes

Let’s quickly touch on what to avoid:

1. The “Once upon a time” opening. Starting with backstory kills tension before it begins.
2. Over-explaining motives. Readers love connecting dots. Don’t rob them of that joy.
3. Forgetting the present. The past should enhance the now, not replace it.

When in doubt, remember: if the backstory doesn’t change how a scene plays out, it probably doesn’t belong there.

Quick Exercise / Takeaway

So, here’s a quick challenge for you:

Take a paragraph of pure backstory — something that tells instead of shows. Now, rewrite it as a scene or a snippet of dialogue.

For example:

Instead of writing, “He’d been betrayed by his brother years ago,” Try a moment where he says, “Funny, you sound just like my brother before he sold me out.” Same information. More impact.

Or take a memory like “She used to sing with her mother every night.” You could show it in the present instead: She hummed under her breath — the same lullaby she swore she’d forgotten.

When readers feel the past through the present, that’s storytelling magic.

So, remember — backstory isn’t something you dump on the reader. It’s something you unfold, piece by piece, when it matters most.

Because the truth is, your characters are carrying their past whether they talk about it or not. And when you reveal it at just the right moment, it doesn’t just explain who they are — it makes us care why they became that way.

But that’s all from me today. Be sure to subscribe for more videos on the craft of writing, leave a comment below, and give this video a like if you got something out of it.

You’ve got some writing to do, so I’ll see you in the next video. Ta-ta!