In tonight’s craft class, we study how Cheryl Strayed moves from front story to backstory and back again in Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail.
Wild’s front story is Strayed hiking the Pacific Crest Trail with all the challenges it presents.
She dips into backstory to tell the reader about her mother’s death, her marriage and divorce, her drug use, and other parts of her life.
We mapped out chapter ten, “Range of Light,” pages 146-174, and focused on techniques Strayed uses to move the reader from front story to backstory and back to the main story.
I wonder how to more eloquently move from frontstory to backstory in my poetry. Often the change is in one sentence. Perhaps a new stanza is the style to use?