Guest Blogger ~ Terry Odell

Happy Summer All. Grab those special books you love to escape with, and head out to the pool or to your backyard lounging chair, and indulge your reader's appetite. Terry Odell's romantic suspense novels are a perfect fit for summer. Her clear descriptive writing style will carry you away effortlessly into a story packed with hang-onto-your-teeth twists and turns. But, most importantly, ends with the triumph of love.
For all of us authors and aspiring authors Terry discusses a topic that is vitally important to a successful novel, how to use backstory. What does your reader need and want to know about the main characters? How much is too much? And when is there too little backstory?
Welcome Terry, thanks for joining us today. And thanks for all of your insightful comments on Title Magic.

When Savanna invited me to guest on Title Magic, I was thrilled. Then I panicked. What could I possibly add that hasn't been done before (and probably better)? What to blog about? She suggested a craft topic. Not a specific topic, mind you, just "some kind of how to" column. She also said to be sure to include cover art. Since I can't possibly play favorites with my 'babies', I sent her to my website and begged her to pick a cover she liked. She selected Starting Over, so that's my jumping off point.
After typing "The End" on my first novel, Finding Sarah, I went through a period of post-partum depression. Eventually, I came out of my funk and it was time to start over. I created a folder in my computer, named it "Starting Over" and plunged in, literally 'starting over' to write another book. Colleen McDonald, one of the secondary characters in Finding Sarah demanded her own story.
Which leads me to the real topic, which is back story, and where to start the book. Now, where to start the book is not the same as where to start the story. (See, everything up to this point has been back story, and the post might be better off if I'd omitted it, but I figured show, don't tell, right?)
When I wrote Finding Sarah, I didn't know a lot about Colleen McDonald because I didn't have to. I created enough of a past for her so she could deliver her lines properly, but not much more. For her book, though, I needed to get inside her head—find out everything about her. And because I was feeling guilty for bugging my sister-in-law for all the details about Oregon, where Finding Sarah was set, I decided my cop, Colleen, would move to Orlando, to a neighborhood where all I had to do was look out my window. But why would she move? And thus, the back story began.
The first draft of Starting Over began with Colleen in Pine Hills, Oregon, relating (at great length) the after-effects of the "inciting incident", a domestic call gone south. From there, we followed Colleen to Orlando, where I showed in great detail my familiarity with the airport and what it's like to travel to my town. Then we watched her explore her new home (establish setting), with a few demonstrations that she still didn't have her act together (her inner conflict), a call to her mother (dutiful daughter), and on and on.
This was all very necessary information. But I was the only one who needed it. For the reader, it was one big, long … "all right, but where's the STORY?" So, the opening Oregon scene was written as a prologue and cut to two pages. Content of the first eight chapters became condensed into three.
The result? Chapter One's opening, as published:
In the steamy cocoon of the shower, Colleen’s fingers found the dimpled scar the bullet had left on her thigh and the long, straight one where they’d repaired her femoral artery. She knew they were no longer a garish red, but she refused to look at them. Thankfully, the exit wound on the back of her leg was out of sight unless she really worked at seeing it. The ugly reminders that screamed "failure" remained, long after the physical pain had gone.
She watched the sudsy water swirl down the drain, willing it to take her memories along.
Get a grip. It’s over. Forget Pine Hills. You made your choice, so get on with your life.
She declared yesterday a do-over. Hell, as long as she was changing the rules of time, the last three months never happened. But then, she’d still be a cop in Pine Hills, Oregon, instead of a basket case in Orlando, Florida.
Consider back story as cocktail party conversation, especially in the opening chapters. When you meet someone new, do you pour out your entire life, how you broke your arm ice skating when you were six, so you're afraid of winter; or how your brother's an alcoholic, so you only drink club soda; or that your cleaning lady broke your favorite platter which you inherited from Great Aunt Matilda who had a big mole on her chin, with three hairs sprouting out of it and smelled like rosewater so you can't abide the scent of roses? If you answered 'yes', do you watch your new acquaintance's eyes glaze over?
Look at the Indiana Jones movies. We knew in the opening gambit of Raiders of the Lost Ark that Indy was afraid of snakes. This was good foreshadowing, because of course, there had to be a scene where he would confront the slithery rascals. But … wasn't it movie number three before we learned why he was afraid of snakes? Did not knowing in any way diminish the enjoyment of movie number one? When he freaked at the snake in the plane, did anyone want the movie to go back and show why he was afraid? I doubt it. Likewise the scar on his chin. You might have wondered how he got it, but did it impact the story if you knew or didn't know?
In reality, the opening of the third movie was all back story, but it worked because it wasn't the true beginning of the series. It laid foundation for Indy's character, but by now, everyone loved him and was happy to learn more about his childhood. And there was that feeling of being an "insider" because we knew what would happen years later. Although this was the movie's opening, it was really more like chapter twenty in a full-length novel.
Think of back story as an IV drip, not forced gastric tube feeding. Before you write a scene, ask yourself: 1) Does the reader need to know this? And 2) Does the reader need to know this now? This is, of course, after you've decided that the scene addresses sufficient plot points to advance the story, which is another topic altogether.
Your characters have pasts, which helped make them who they are on page one. Just don't feel obligated to tell the reader every single detail. Let the characters discover each other as the relationship develops.
And, as a follow up, there's another kind of back story. If you've got connected books, how much of Book One do you re-tell in Book Two? On the one hand, it's fun to give returning readers that 'insider' moment when they know who the characters are, and what's happened before. On the other hand, you risk pulling readers out of the story if you stop to explain who everyone is, and how they got to where they are. But that's a topic for another day.
Available from Terry Odell:
Finding Sarah (digital and print) – 2nd Place: The Lories, Published, Romantic Suspense
What's in a Name? (digital and print) – Finalist: Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence;
The Daphne du Maurier Award of Excellence
Starting Over (digital)
Hidden Fire (digital)
Get some behind the scenes peeks at the writing process on my website, www.terryodell.com
Details, first chapter reads and buy links at http://www.terryodell.com/available-now.html
And check out my romance short stories (digital) with The Wild Rose Press.
****************************
BIO:
Terry Odell was born in Los Angeles and now makes her home in central Florida. An avid reader (her parents tell everyone they had to move from their first home because she finished the local library), she always wanted to "fix" stories so the characters did what she wanted, in books, television and the movies. Once she began writing, she found this wasn't always possible, as evidenced when the mystery she intended to write rapidly became a romance. With her degree in Psychology from UCLA, she loves getting into the minds of her characters. When she's not writing, she's reading. She also volunteers for the Adult Literacy League, training new tutors, and spent ten years as the administrative assistant for a scientific organization devoted to the study of marine mammals.
Prior to publication, her manuscripts won several awards, including the Suzannah, the Gotcha, and the IGO. Her published romantic suspense novel, What's in a Name? was a finalist in the 2008 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence contest and also is a finalist in the prestigious Daphne du Maurier Award contest. Finding Sarah is a second place winner in The Lories, Published Romantic Suspense division.
Terry lives in Orlando, where you can probably find her reading when she's not creating new dilemmas for her characters. Look for her newest book, When Danger Calls, from Five Star Expressions in December. Drop by her website, http://www.terryodell.com/, or her blog, http://terryodell.blogspot.com/