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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37119
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The least obtrusive way to deliver background information is to leave it out. ...for now.

You are painting an action scene with your words. Your goal is to keep the reader spellbound, excited and emotionally involved. This is no time to delve into the psychological roots of why the characters are fighting. One of them wants to kill the other and the other wants to survive. There is no need for more details than that in the opening scene.

It is vital that you know why your characters are fighting. Finding those answers for yourself may involve a lot of work, world-building and character-building. You may have to develop dozens of pages of backstory to get your characters to where your story begins, but none of that hard-won knowledge is needed or welcome in the opening scenes. Most of it will probably never make it into your book at all.

Backstory provides completeness and therefore continuity to your story. A long and detailed backstory is like a treasure chest which you can turn to when a current chapter needs something special. By slowly revealing previous hidden details about your characters, you gradually fill in the reader's understanding of the "why" behind what is going on. By trickling those details out slowly, you keep the reader curious and thereby keep them engaged.

If some (most) of your backstory never gets included, that is okay. Readers are pretty intuitive and will figure out or at least have a fan theory about the bits you leave out. And those undisclosed treasures will be very useful should you choose to write a sequel.

Keep Writing

Original score: 11