AUTHOR NATION 2026 · TALK RESOURCES
Stop Dumping, Start Layering
Adding Backstory and Setting Without Killing Momentum
Kristen Tate
How to layer backstory, setting, and worldbuilding into your story, scenes, and sentences, so readers get what they need without losing momentum.
Your Talk Resources
Free to download. No signup required.
Layering Worksheet
Every tool and tactic from the talk, at the story, scene, and sentence levels, plus your story spreadsheet and scene-tagging templates.
Download the worksheet (PDF)Talk Slides
The full deck from the session, including the passages we looked at together.
View the slides (PDF)AUTHOR NATION FOUNDATIONS
One More Session to Watch
Want to know more about the story spreadsheet tool I mention in the talk? Watch this 101-level session on how to map your novel.
Map Your Novel
Building a story spreadsheet and graphing internal and external intensity.
Get the template and worksheetKEEP LAYERING
See Layering in Action
Three scene studies that look closely at how novelists layer backstory, worldbuilding, and dialogue into their stories.
Top-down and bottom-up worldbuilding in Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
When to tell and when to show your story world
Read the post
Two tools for delivering backstory in Charlotte McConaghy's Wild Dark Shore
Hinting, withholding, and putting characters in motion
Read the post
What can dialogue do? (I Kissed Shara Wheeler, Casey McQuiston)
Tucking backstory into the white space around dialogue
Read the postNovel Study
The Novel Study series — case studies that show you what's working for today's most successful fiction writers, with graphs and takeaways that help you use the tools in your own manuscript
Book 1 – out now
Case studies including The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, The Searcher by Tana French, The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
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Book 2 – out January 5
Case studies including The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby, Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
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The Blue Garret is my twice-monthly letter for fiction writers: craft and structure — including my Novel Study analyses — honest notes from the editing trenches, and encouragement to keep your own work alive. Plus a Thing of Joy in every issue, because we all need one. Come join us!
NOVEL STUDY BOOK CLUB 2027
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Study successful novels with a community of novelists and editors: a new novel every six weeks, with craft notes, story spreadsheets, in-depth essays, and live discussions. Relaunching January 2027.
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I'm Kristen Tate — a developmental editor and the author of the Novel Study series, a close-reading project examining how contemporary novelists construct captivating fiction. I hold a PhD in English literature and work with writers at all stages, from first drafts to final polish.
Learn more about Novel Study and my editorial work at thebluegarret.com.
Questions? [email protected]