: Re: Is it bad if I sidetrack to a backstory that’s not really necessary but is interesting? My story is about two children and one of them dies in the first chapter. I give a four page backstory

@Karen856

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I think that you already know you have to cut it. I know you are emotionaly attached to it but, if it doesn't move the plot forward and if it doesn't help establish character,... well, as you said, it's useless.

Adding text just for the sake of adding it is not a good idea. But before removing it, ask yourself why you think it's interesting.

Is it because you care about your character and want to know more about them? If it is, just remove it. At the begining of a story, no one cares (yet) about a character and their backstory. All the reader wants is to find out what is the story gonna be about and what the character will do.
Is it because it shows that the character has this and that characteristic? Then keep it, it add depth to the character.
Does it give information that we are going to need later? Then you can keep it but make sure that there are other interesting things in the chapter (and not just four pages of info dump, info dump is boring).

After answering these questions, and because the answer will probably be a mix of all these things, you have the following options:

Remove everything from the story (but keep the text for you so you can use a slice of it later).
Reduce the passage to keep only what is "necessary".
Don't do anything and wait for when you have finished the story to take a decision.

If you decide to keep everything, make sure to re-think your decision at the end of the story to be sure you did the right thing.

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