Rebeca Schiller

The jury is out. My back story chapter–in the words of  contributing Vogue editor Andre Leon Talley (yes, guilty as charged, I watch America’s Next Top Model), “Dreck.” Well, truthfully, the comments were not that harsh. The few comments I received was that it slowed the story’s pace.

[BIG sigh]

I knew in my gut that it wasn’t working. Now I have to figure out how to pick up the pace and have the parts fall into place. First I need to call the Yountville Sheriff’s office and get some basic information (ugh, hate to do that because I don’t think they’ll be very cooperative).  Second, I have to scratch the flashback within the flashback. Third, I have to rework the relationship with my new character earlier in the book.

[BIGGER sigh]

Book two of Julius is turning out to be more complicated than I want it to be. My instincts are telling me to

Yesterday I started a very brand new chapter for Julius.  As you might recall, last month Ritz, my accountability partner (Hi Ritz!) had suggested that instead of breaking a chapter with a flashback or back story that I make it a separate chapter. Well, 1,490 words later, I have a chapter that includes a little information (no, a lot) on Corinne, my MC.

Way back, when one critter on IWW, whom I greatly respect, noted that my characters tend to eat a lot. They go out to restaurants, the order take-out, they’re cooking and a lot of the dialogue and action revolves around food. He thought I should shake it up a bit. At first I agreed with him, but then I realized that for these characters food is important. It’s one of the bourgeois pleasures they have and won’t give up (that, and

I write a lot of back story, and some critters–the naysayers–inform me that agents and editors don’t like back story. If that’s the case, why is it that I come across novels that have a lot of flashbacks? (and let’s not mention prologues and epilogues).

The back story to Julius has its purpose. First, it delves into the narrator’s psyche. You can’t understand her actions, beliefs, doubts, dreams without the story behind the story. Secondly, as I’ve written before, I believe that you need to know history before you fully understand what’s happening in the present. And a lot of Julius is based on history.

I tend to intersperse flashbacks within the primary action and what I’ve discovered is that sometimes it works and other times it can get clunky. The question then is to ditch it or not? I discussed this before with Ritz (my accountability partner) and she likes the