: Re: The backstory's overwhelming the actual story I have a character with a grim past (forced to watch torture). I need him to have that grim past in order to explain his behaviour in the story

@Lee1909368

Without knowing your plot its hard to say, but I think you might have already mentioned the word at the heart of a possible solution. Circle.

Don't just have his past haunt him, and explain his actions. Make him confront it again in the main plot. Bring him full circle. What you currently think is your main plot, is just the excuse to see him in action. Turn a sudden corner and we find that somebody is making history repeat. Your hero has to get neck deep into his past and his problems in order to resolve them.

This guarantees equal grim-factor for the start and end, the middle ought to work itself out after that. If you can't stomach that, then maybe you really ought to lose the backstory and redefine your hero. It sounds like you want to make him a monster but if that's the case he must visit some very dark places in the final chapters otherwise what was the point?

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: Re: The backstory's overwhelming the actual story I have a character with a grim past (forced to watch torture). I need him to have that grim past in order to explain his behaviour in the story

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: Recommendations for reputable writing critique site for non-native English speaker? I am non-native English speaker, living in US for 25 years. I have a long professional career, and, therefore,

: The rule of writing states "Don't break the fourth wall". That means don't remind the reader they are the reader, they read a book, the characters are in a book. Immersion is a volatile

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: Based on where I put a comma in a long sentence, can it confuse the readers from the way its supposed to be read? One bad habit I have when writing sentences is that I make them too long

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