Back Story Junkies
Whenever I meet a new couple, I always ask "How did you two meet?" I love all of fate's twists and turns and there is never a couple that doesn't have a great back story to their real-life romance. My significant other and I met when he was a chef and I was waiting tables, and his sous chef burned my best customer's steak, and I hurled the steak through the window and cursed the kitchen with a few choice words, and broke a plate . . . and I guess that suffices for a sort of cute "how we met" tale. For him, it was love at first sight. In my defense, this was BEFORE I studied Eastern philosophy, Buddhism, and found my more peaceful path. Back then, I was a b*tch on wheels.
But I digress . . . I am, most definitely, a back story junkie. I LOVE the "how we met" tales. I LOVE looking at old photo albums--even of people I have NEVER met. I will sit in a near-stranger's home and look through photos and listen to tales. I don't know why, but it's all somehow amazing to me how different people are, their clans, their love stories, their lives.
Which leads me to my new work-in-progress. It has, without a doubt, the most complicated back story of any book I've attempted. The relationship between my heroine and her mother, and the themes of feminism and obsession, are complicated. And here I am in chapter two, struggling . . . because I really just want to sit down and tell you the whole back story in linear fashion, but I know . . . that I can't. It doesn't make for good story-telling, so the secrets have to spill out bit by bit. This entails fighting my natural human instinct.
Anyone else a back story junkie?
But I digress . . . I am, most definitely, a back story junkie. I LOVE the "how we met" tales. I LOVE looking at old photo albums--even of people I have NEVER met. I will sit in a near-stranger's home and look through photos and listen to tales. I don't know why, but it's all somehow amazing to me how different people are, their clans, their love stories, their lives.
Which leads me to my new work-in-progress. It has, without a doubt, the most complicated back story of any book I've attempted. The relationship between my heroine and her mother, and the themes of feminism and obsession, are complicated. And here I am in chapter two, struggling . . . because I really just want to sit down and tell you the whole back story in linear fashion, but I know . . . that I can't. It doesn't make for good story-telling, so the secrets have to spill out bit by bit. This entails fighting my natural human instinct.
Anyone else a back story junkie?
Labels: back stories
posted by Erica Orloff at 7:42 PM
7 Comments:
I am. I love finding out the paths people have taken to get where they are now. I love it so much, that I will even ask strangers on a plane questions about their histories, if they seem interesting.
On a recent flight to Austin, I met a man who has been married 20 years to a woman he met when he developed film. She brought a roll in to the store where he worked and when she returned he asked her out. 28 days later, they married. Last year, for their 20th anniversary, he took her to Paris and Thailand. He still glows when he speaks of her.
See! Back story. Gotta love it.
I hope you find your way through chapter 2.
Jen
Jen:
I LOVE stories like that. Makes you believe in fate, doesn't it?
E
Totally! :)
Jen
Guilty as charged!
So much so that the dh refers to me as a 'nut magnet' because people often share intimate details of their lives with me out of the blue. In his opinion that makes them crazy for talking and me crazier for listening.
As far as the writing goes, I think that's my biggest sin. I began telling all the facts of the back story in that linear fashion you mentioned. Some of the older stuff I wrote, I could probably trash the entire first 5-8 chapters. :(...but I'm working on it. :)
I LOVE backstories too Erica...I love hearing about how people met and also how they changed after they met. Like the playboy who becomes a devoted father and husband...or the shy girl who becomes a powerful career woman after meeting a guy who supports her no matter what.
Cool post.
Lainey:
Believe me, I relate. It seems like a lot of people pour out their innermost secrets to me. I always wonder--do I have a kind face? Seem compassionate? What is it? Often it's unasked! But then I think, they must need someone to listen so perhaps it is a good thing I was there. :-)
dona:
I like stories of that variety too--I often ask people how they chose their career. Even if it's not a profession I find interesting, I do like hearing how people chose it. Or those "fate" stories that set someone on a new path.
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