I'm reading a novel right now that won a pulitzer, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon, and his trick is to get all of the backstory in as soon as a new character is introduced. He has entire chapters of back story. The key to keeping the reader's interest is to make the backstory as interesting as the present story. Good luck with that. I'd recommend, rather than reading about how to do it, just look at how other people do it.

The key to keeping the reader's interest is to make the backstory as interesting as the present story.

Excellent point, Jordan. It's great standing next to someone at a party who's telling a humorous (or horrifying) anecdote about what they got up to on holiday, but pretty dire to be stuck next to someone telling you about being stuck on the M25 for four hours and missing their flight. A lot of people make the mistake of putting in backstory about where a character grew up, who their relations are, (I know, I'm simplifying it a lot, but that sort of flavour of information) which is just boring.


- NaomiM