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Q&A A long backstory right at the beginning

Just as I heard from various sources, a plot has to start with what the reader will find through most of it. And that's what I did, the first scene shown is the main event that triggers the story. ...

3 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by Yuuza‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question plot structure
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:00:44Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/26341
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Yuuza‭ · 2019-12-08T06:00:44Z (almost 5 years ago)
Just as I heard from various sources, a plot has to start with what the reader will find through most of it. And that's what I did, the first scene shown is the main event that triggers the story. Such scene includes action, romance, drama and violence, basically just what is seen throughout the story.

However, after that scene, there's a chunk of significant size of the story showing 1 or 2 years before that event, to flesh out the protagonist and other characters, and explain the setting and why and how the starting scene happened. Only after all this backstory (some pages) is that the story really begins. But the reader, at this point, now knows who the protagonist is, what are his motivations and how important is the journey to reach his goal.

But by doing that, would the readers get bored and want the story to start off already? Of course, such backstory is not just boring backstory, it has romance, action, drama, just like the starting scene, but it's not short. Maybe I could break it down into smaller chunks and show them in flashbacks. However, there are already two other subjects that are shown through flashbacks, and probably the reader would get annoyed by the plot going back and forth so many times.

So what I ask is: would there be any problem if I leave it this way?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-01-28T07:49:44Z (almost 8 years ago)
Original score: 5