How to reveal the back story?

[Hellomatey001]

Well I am quarter of the way through a fiction novel.

I need to reveal the back story of one of the characters but so far her back story is revealed in her reminiscing about the past.

I need a more dynamic way of revealing the back story.

Does anyone have any tips or ways they overcame this?

Like real life where someone has to talk to someone telling their story?

Character from her past? Discovery of an old diary?

Photo album or newspaper clipping (if your character's family were famous at one time?)

How much backstory is there? I mean, is it a single defining incident you need to reveal (in which case, have someone who knew her then, a newspaper clipping, a gossip reveal it?), or her entire life up till now?

I think for me they key thing is not to infodump in one blurt, but to think what exactly the reader needs to know about x at any one moment.

Could you do flashbacks? Introduce a new character to put a new perspective in your character?

Backstory should be treated like drizzling oil into mayonnaise, as it tends to slow down the narrative. A dynamic way of doing it can be for a character from her past to suddenly show up or an incident which reveals that she isn't all she says she is. That can be good or bad. Eg if your character is clumsy or terrible at sports and suddenly an old lady is mugged, and your character picks up a tin can, chucks it at the mugger and hits him or her square in the back of their head. Or your character says she trained as a nurse but when someone collapses, she hasn't the faintest idea what to do. Or a relative appears who calls her by a different name.

The character is in love with someone. But I want to reveal that without her thinking and reminiscing. That feels like a big info dump.

I've had her confess her feelings in writing and then thinking back to how they met etc whilst writing it.

Not too sure whether this solves the problem but willing to redraft.