Hung up on flashbacks

Don't.


But that's a personal opinion. I dislike flashbacks almost as much as I dislike prologues and dream sequences. But again i stress that this is a personal opinion.

The issue I have with them is that they tend to be an info dump, or worse, a very contrived way of explaining somethig that really shouldn't need explaining.

But if they are handled well they can be very effective.

I would think of exactly the scene/event that you need to show and write just that. Write it as a separate piece from the rest of the story, which it is essentially. Rem,mber with flashbacks that you can't get too caught up in the story, because it hasn't happened yet, and so you need to almost detach yourself from it and pretend that you don't know what happens.

"After slaughtering the forty eight goblins, the stench of blood wafted up to Johnny's nostrils. It reminded him of Clara's perfume. He could still clearly hear her voice in his head, feel her touch on his skin. They had planned to get married on the field outside his parents house, where they first met. It had been a sunny day, birds chirping. Johnny had first seen her sitting on a blanket absorbed fully by the book she was reading. She didn't notice him taking his clothes off and flopping his penis about until...."

I'm sorry... I just got caught up in this piece of fine literature I was composing.

I've got a story ready for editing that is two thirds flashbacks. "The man who would be king" is 99.9% flashbacks. If it works... do it. You can freeze the moment of maximum tension for an eternity with flashbacks.

I'm slightly worried what sort of perfume this girl is wearing.

Flashbacks are tricky. I used them in Shifter, but they were always very small, and more like memories the protag remembered at key moments. Half a page was the longest.

A few things will help make them work.

1. They need to be something the reader wants to know about. If you've teased them with this for a while, and they're dying to know what happened, a flashback will hold their interest.

2. If it's long, it has to have all the same drive as a regular scene. It can't just be exposition or backstory. The protag should be working toward something so the reader wants to see what happens next. Even if it's "how did they get to where they are now?"

3. It has to be relevant. This information needs to advance the plot in some way and reveal something important that moves that story forward.

Shorter is better since you essentially stop the story to go into this flashback. Any time you stop the story you risk losing the reader. Also, resist the urge to explain how your character got there/was affected by/shaped by this event. Explanation rarely holds a reader's interest, especially if it's long. Dramatize it, make it interesting, and make it important. As soon as you start to feel that explanation coming on, stop yourself and see how you can show it instead.

Danthia said:

1. They need to be something the reader wants to know about.

........

3. It has to be relevant.

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This sums it up prefectally.

Yeah, I'm in the camp that's highly uncertain of Clara's perfume, but you need a clear delination between present as it relates to the story and the past. Ways to do this: vary the verb tense. For example, use past perfect in the flash back, include a scene break, and make certain you have a transition both into the flash back and back out of it again.

As long as you set them up properly, there's nothing wrong with a flashback. Occasionally, they can blend in too much with the rest of the narrative, causing confusion. Clear that hurdle, and you can feel safe in knowing you're not doing anything terrible.

Danthia said:

1. They need to be something the reader wants to know about. If you've teased them with this for a while, and they're dying to know what happened, a flashback will hold their interest.

2. If it's long, it has to have all the same drive as a regular scene. It can't just be exposition or backstory. The protag should be working toward something so the reader wants to see what happens next. Even if it's "how did they get to where they are now?"

3. It has to be relevant. This information needs to advance the plot in some way and reveal something important that moves that story forward.

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This should be a sticky somewhere on AW! It is perfectly and succinctly stated and although I intuitively knew some of this, I just learned a whole lot from seeing it written. Thanks Danthia!

Am I the only one who's wondering if Clara is single?

Wayne K said:

Am I the only one who's wondering if Clara is single?

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I'm pretty sure she is.

Smelling like goblin blood as she does.

What Danthia said. They'd better be darn relevant flashbacks, and they'd best be as short as you can make them.

Otherwise, you can probably work them into the story as dialogue between two characters, or like the example Zoidy gave of the orc slaying/perfume recollection.

shaldna said:

I'm pretty sure she is.

Smelling like goblin blood as she does.

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I'm a goblin vampire

Dr Zoidberg's now infamous example is more of an allusion to the past, or an anecdote, as it's still firmly rooted to the present.

A flashback takes the action out of the present and re-sets it somewhere in the past. As with the rest of the book, characters should still have motivations in the flashback; there should still be something driving it. The point of the flashback should always be clear unless you are purposely trying to manipulate the reader.

One of my works I've put on the shelf for a bit uses flashbacks to establish the relationship of a couple, who are now at crisis point. They're more sort of moments- like one where he buys her a gift for the first time. Because you can see what's at stake for the couple by experiencing it firsthand, I think it makes it more intense.

In my trunk novel, every other chapter was a flashback. I'd tell the current story, then I'd flashback to the MC's past and it told of the story how she reached this point.

It's a rare novel that doesn't contain flashbacks. Fklashbacks are a goodm useful tool, and if done well, few readers even notice there is one. It's when you set flashbacks apart, separate them from teh narrative, highlight them with italics, etc., that reader generally get annoyed.

A good flashback remains part of the narrative. You ease in and ease out smoothly, slipping from this is happening now, to this happened then, and back into this is happening now.

Jamesaritchie said:

It's a rare novel that doesn't contain flashbacks. Fklashbacks are a goodm useful tool, and if done well, few readers even notice there is one. It's when you set flashbacks apart, separate them from teh narrative, highlight them with italics, etc., that reader generally get annoyed.

A good flashback remains part of the narrative. You ease in and ease out smoothly, slipping from this is happening now, to this happened then, and back into this is happening now.

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That is interesting because my flashbacks are very jarring.

I end a chapter, have a blank page, then a flash back.

There are 7 total in my book. The flash backs lead up to, by the end, where the novel started. And they serve to cast the entire book in a different light.

We'll see whether or not it works I guess.