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Q&A Innovative Ways to Provide Background Information

Think action movie. Think two heavily-armed men - one chasing the other over rooftops, down through buildings and into the mean streets of a crowded city. Think big guns, explosions and other loud ...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by robertcday‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T09:11:30Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/37114
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar robertcday‭ · 2019-12-08T09:11:30Z (over 4 years ago)
Think _action movie_. Think two heavily-armed men - one chasing the other over rooftops, down through buildings and into the mean streets of a crowded city. Think big guns, explosions and other loud noises. Think danger. Think high-octane thrills.

The scene fades, the noise ends and then we are seeing a child being chastised by a father-figure. It becomes clear, after an extended scene, that this is the past and that the child will become one of the figures involved in the chase. It turns out that this scene is background information that tells us why the character has turned out to be a violent man. This is backstory, info-dump and (some might say) a darned nuisance all at the same time.

Question: **what innovative ways are available to deliver background information without preventing the reader from enjoying the main storyline?**

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-06-21T10:11:29Z (almost 6 years ago)
Original score: 11