Those Who Forget the Past: Using Backstory to Enhance Your Novel

January 18, 2023 by marianne h donley in category Ages 2 Perfection Online Class, Events, Online Classes tagged as Aged to Perfection Online Class, Cynthia Owens, Online Class, Writing Backstory with 0 and 1

Home > Online Classes > Ages 2 Perfection Online Class > Those Who Forget the Past: Using Backstory to Enhance Your Novel

Presented by: Cynthia Owens

Date: February 1 – 28, 2023 (one month)

Registration Closes: February 15, 2023

Pricing: A2P Member fee: $20

Non-A2P Member fee: $30

About the Workshop:

In Those Who Forget History: Using Backstory to Enhance Your Novel, students will examine how to use backstory effectively to enhance their stories using elements of a character’s past.

We will cover:
• What is Backstory?
• Flashbacks and How to Use Them,
• The Five Ws of Backstory—Who, What, Where, When and Why—of a character’s past.
• Prologues—how to use a prologue to provide backstory.
• Dialogue—how to manipulate your readers by using a character’s dialogue to hint at backstory.
• Weaving—how to weave backstory into your story.
• Inner Thought—revealing your character’s backstory through inner thought.
• What Do They Want?—how your character’s backstory can affect his goals.
• The New Way to Plot: Using backstory to plot your novel
Included in the workshop is a workbook with assignments, checklists, and more.

About the Presenter:

I believe I was destined to be interested in history. One of my distant ancestors, Thomas Aubert, reportedly sailed up the St. Lawrence River to discover Canada some 26 years before Jacques Cartier’s 1534 voyage. Another relative was a 17thCentury “King’s Girl,” one of a group of young unmarried girls sent to New France (now the province of Quebec) as brides for the habitants (settlers) there.

My passion for reading made me long to write books like the ones I enjoyed, and I tried penning sequels to my favorite Nancy Drew mysteries. Later, fancying myself a female version of Andrew Lloyd Weber, I drafted a musical set in Paris during WWII.

A former journalist and lifelong Celtophile, I enjoyed a previous career as a reporter/editor for a small chain of community newspapers before returning to my first love, romantic fiction. My stories usually include an Irish setting, hero or heroine, and sometimes all three.

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marianne h donley

Author Details

Marianne H. Donley writes fiction in the form of short stories, funny romances, and quirky murder mysteries. She makes her home in Pennsylvania with her husband, son, and a really sweet, bad dog. She is a member of Bethlehem Writers Group, Sisters in Crime, Guppies, Capital Crime, and Charmed Writers. You can follow Marianne’s various social media here: https://linktr.ee/mariannehdonley

https://www.mariannedonley.com