Flashbacks in novels

I had the idea of a flashback scene in a novel. I thought about having a whole chapter dedicated to it, and the chapter after that returning to the present. At least, that's one way.

Look for:

Flashbacks and Foreshadowing

http://tritt.wirefire.com/

My finished novel has one flashback, and it's in its own scene about 3/4 of the way into the book. I lead into it by having one character ask another 'what happened.' Then I present the scene as it happened, rather than by having the character describe it or by using past perfect. I use another scene separator to end the flashback scene and continue with the listening character reacting to the story she'd just been told.

I do have two minor instances where something reminds the MC of another incident and 'for a moment' he flashes back, but it's brief enough to be described in one sentence. But it's more like he's reliving the moment, so I don't use past perfect.

I'm not a big fan of flashbacks, so I try to find other ways of presenting the backstory. What annoys me most is reading a flashback in chapter 1.

Oh, sorry -- I thought you were asking how *we* do flashbacks. You were asking how you should do them.

I have a similar question in the Uncle Jim thread. A couple folks have chimed in, suggesting I start at the later point and then fill in backstory (Uncle Jim has been mysteriously quiet lately). I would ask you this: what percentage of your story is about the stuff that happens in 1950 vs. 2005? If most of it's in the past, I'd go with starting then and tell the events in chronological order. If most of it's in 2005, start there and zip back as you need to.

But I'm unpublished. What do I know?

aspiringwriter said:

Well the story i'm working on (and started almost 15 years ago) is about a movie theater and three generations of sons who each have their turn at one point of the other.

Maybe I can simplify it more.... My dillemma is where to start the story? Do I start it in 2005 and go ALL the way back to 1950 OR start in 1950 and move forward? Another option is to have alternating chapters (meaning one chapter with past and one future) and so on...???

I mean there's no way of getting out of the fifty-year span because that's my story and I don't want to change it...Is there a way I can do this???

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This sounds like you can have a lot of fun with it, once you get into whatever groove is going to work for this story. Because it's an old theatre we're talking about, it seems like you can really play on... sort of... common cultural knowledge of the past.

So, say if we're with the present day protag... history absolutely surrounds him. Every little detail in the ceiling, or the curtains, the old projection room, everything about this old building is a springboard into the past.

"That screen, where Gretta Garbo wowed them..."

That kind of thing.

Without flashbacks, you could do a lot just in the MC's thoughts and observations of his surroundings to recreate the past. And if that's not enough, you could lead off with Chapter One happening way back at the beginning, then catapult to the present and stay there until you've built up enough interest to launch into another chapter from the past. Your flashbacks could be their own chapters, and you could set it up so that the reader understands and expects... even hopes for this to happen from time to time as it's relevant to the plot.

Sort of... treat it like an epic, but instead of jumping between different leads in different locales, you jump between them in time from chapter to chapter - showing somehow that they are all working toward the same goal.

Wow, I don't know the longest work I had, but I know it wasn't fifteen years back. Does it still make sense to you?

aspiringwriter said:

Yes it does because ever since then i've been toying around with different ideas...Maybe I should have clarified... I started work on the story back in 1990....actually completed it four years later and forgot about it... Then I went back and tweaked the story ect for another two or three years and finally shelved it...

Ove the years though, i've thought about changes I could make to it, ect.... I have pretty much revamped the story but with the same concept... I have no idea how long it will be but i'm not even worried about that yet!! !

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I can relate. The story I'm writing now began as an inspiration back in 1994. Over the decade I made five failed attempts to get it going. I finally got a grip on how to present it two years ago, and since then it's been a fight to wrestle it down. Only in the last five months, have I gotten to the point where I know I can conquer it, and still I'm struggling.

So, good luck, and God speed!