Flashback tenses

Diviner said:

In the telling, I begin the recall in the past perfect ("had climbed," etc.) but as the conflict boils up, I slip into the simple past ("he saw red").

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As far as I've ever heard, this is the correct way of doing it. Past perfect shows that we are entering into a different time, and once that fact has been established, you can use simple past for the rest of the scene.

Hi,

I just finished an historical novel, which rather heavy-handed, handled your problem by stating the character was 'carried back to the time when...', 'dreamed about the time when,' 'recalled the conversation between A and B when...', etc. in order to present the notation or incident in simple past tense.

Having a personal aversion to 'had had' and 'had' in general, I would really not recommend such a technique as it was a 'groan' moment of warning for the upcoming 'info dump' for the reader. I don't know whether a reader would be as irritated as I was, or not. However confusing the reader as to when an actual incident is/was/had taken place would probably be more irritating if not consistently constructed.

The same author used alternating POV's and tense changes within the same scenes, which was very distracting.

I'm also interested to other's answers to your question?

Thanks for asking!

I've used flashbacks a lot in my writing and I rarely, if ever, "introduce" the flashback. I use a divider of some sort and go completely into a new scene to show it. It's a bit harder, in that you have to make sure the first couple of sentences immediately bring the reader into the past, but it can be done, and I think it's less "predictable fade to" than other ways I've read.

I agree to use had for the first few sentences, max (1-3ish). Then go to simple past.

Diviner said:

I begin the recall in the past perfect ("had climbed," etc.) but as the conflict boils up, I slip into the simple past ("he saw red").

Click to expand...

This is exactly right.

(I have lots of this in my upcoming book.)

Aleksandra said:

Having a personal aversion to 'had had' and 'had' in general, I would really not recommend such a technique as it was a 'groan' moment of warning for the upcoming 'info dump' for the reader.

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Poorly done flashbacks/memories are indeed a groan. Beautifully done flashbacks/memories are fantastic. The "hads" are perfectly correct. Whether they induce groans or not depends on everything around them ;-)

backslashbaby said:

I agree to use had for the first few sentences, max (1-3ish). Then go to simple past.

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This is what I do, too, except that I also use 'had' constructions for the last couple to remind the reader we're in a flashback and to signal that we're coming out of it. That makes it clear where the flashback ends and where the 'current' time picks up again.

I've read that that is the best way to do it, at least for a flashback where a character is recalling something about the past. You use the past perfect for a couple of sentences to get into it, then a couple at the other end to get out. But unless it's very short don't do the whole thing in past perfect or the reader will get irritated with all the extra "had" etc.

Diviner said:

I begin the recall in the past perfect ("had climbed," etc.) but as the conflict boils up, I slip into the simple past

Click to expand...

What you're doing is fine. You can use Past Perfect to climb out of the flashback, or run a hiatus, or do a fairly abrupt cut back to the normal storytime. (An ember broke and crumbled with a sharp pop. He looked up. Frederick was studying him with concern. "That was a long time ago. It doesn't matter," he said, knowing that it did.)

Past perfect is fine to start, but drop the hads after the first one. Use it again if there is any chance of time-confusion. A little had can go a long way.

The day I got it was like that. I had started to reply to a thread in the Fubar Forum, but was interrupted by the doorbell. The package had finally arrived! I staggered in with the box, eager to rip it open. Then the phone rang. By the time I got back to the computer, there were already ten replies. That was when I knew it was going to be one of those days.

What Terie said...I find this to be an effective way to dive into the flashback or the quick recalling of a past event, especially if it's on the longer side. When coming back from the flashback, using the word NOW is a simple way to root the reader back to present, as long as you don't use this too much