Backstory Told Through Flashbacks?

The general opinion is if you can do it well, than you should.

How to tell if you're doing it well? If the story is made better because of your use of a technique.

I think Michael Ondaatje's memoir "Running in the Family" is right up your alley.

Why not. I have seen books that did very well with that structure. You have to decide what your story is about, though. Those I've read and liked -- the stories were usually "this happened -- but how did it get to be this way?" So the "flashbacks" ARE the story. However, if you have a protagonist getting into a conflict in the main story, then spend 1/3 of the book telling about his childhood, then pick up the main story about on page 135... I don't think that would work very well.

One of my favorite YA books of all time, "The Hero and the Crown" starts out, drops to a flashback on chapter 3, and stays flashed back clear to chapter 12, nearly half the book. It works well, it flows very gracefully.

Generally I think it may work better without the main conflict dropping in before the flashback, though. Otherwise you spend the whole flashback going "Okay, okay, FINE, but what about X? Get back to X, damnit!" So you may not want to have the flashback occur while the hero is dangling from a cliff by one hand, say, but something a little more low-key.

The switching back and forth, chapter to chapter, can work, and I've seen it done well, but it can also be rather aggravating. Often I find myself skimming one set (and it's even odds whether it's the past or the present I'm skimming!) going "Blah, blah, don't care, don't care, get back to the interesting bit!" You have to have two stories you can sustain simultaneously, and not have one overwhelm the other.

It all comes down to what you can do gracefully, though--any of the methods CAN work just fine.

There are writers and editors who absolutely detest using flashbacks, for anything. As a reader, they've never bothered me as such, unless the book itself was unsatisfactory for other reasons. Humans often make discoveries in a sort of flashback manner, learning only much later how some trivial-seeming event worked out to be a profound one. I can't see anything wrong in fiction writers employing a similar kind of technique.

So I did that in my latest completed unpublishable novel, and have been told it has helped make it unpublishable. Go figure.

caw.

Another thing: if you want to use flashbacks, do it early on.

Flashbacks

Flashbacks are like anyting else. Use them well, and no one anywhere will complain. Most won't even know they've read a flashback. Use them poorly, and everyone complains.

Writers are warned away from flashbacks for the same reason they;re warned away from first person. . .most new writers use them poorly, stop the action to use one, and the story suffers.

I feel that flashbacks, like any other writing technique should be used not for their sake, but for the sake of the story. If knowing about a character's past helps the story move forward, then keep it. If not, then toss it.

I notice you did not mention a third option. Don't use flashbacks at all but intermingle the information from the past with action as it is happening, letting it come out naturally.

To add to what Birol just said (which is good advice), backstory should be introduced in advance of when it is needed or it can come off as awkward or contrived. Besides, if you do it in advance, the reader may feel like he/she is involved in putting the pieces of the story together, rather than just being told about it. Also, large chunks of backstory as flashbacks can be a problem because it takes the reader out of the flow of the story. One tactic is to sprinkle in little bits of backstory so it doesn't seem obstrusive. Here's an exercise you may or may not want to try--it may not work for all writers since there are a variety of writing techniques that are as varied as the authors who use them. List in a phrase or sentence (or two) the events of backstory you need to, and want to introduce. Next, arrange the events in two lists; one in order of importance to the story, and one in chronological order of appearance in the story. From these two lists you can balance the chronological need with the overall importance and get a single list of events you want to include. Now you have to find ways to sprinkle these events into the story. A good way is to select some of your scenes in which you show some characterization. Have current events trigger reactions or short memories within the context of one of the backstory items such that it helps explain the character's current response. If these stimulus-response sequences can be done with several small events early in the story, the reader is set up for the character's responses to larger events, and the character's behavior will not appear to "come out of the blue." Once again, this strategy will not work for every writer, and it will not work for every story. It's just one of many ways to deal with backstory and flashbacks.

I'm glad to see this thread because I had the same question. I wasn't planning on using them in my book at first because I had seen some negative comments about using them (not necessarily at AW, although it could have been, I don't remember). But I found it was necessary in order to round out the story. Without the background of my characters' childhood, the rest of the story falls flat.

So I'm using them and I think it's working out okay. It is hard to figure out where they best fit without interrupting the action too much. They're relatively short, though, so I think as long as the information is pertinent, as mentioned above, I'm all for it.

Flashbacks advance the story. They don't backfill. If you can use them to keep the story moving forward, you win.

flashbacks

HConn said:

Flashbacks advance the story. They don't backfill. If you can use them to keep the story moving forward, you win.

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Exactly. It's writers who use flaskbacks for the wrong reasons, and poorly, who cause the problems. The purpose of a flashback is never backfill, it's to advance the story is the fastest possible way.

It's writers who use flaskbacks for the wrong reasons

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Okay, so I'm not a fan of flashbacks, b/c I think they stop the story's pacing dead, while you go back in time to something the reader probably doesn't care about, but I've gotta say, "flasKbacks" might be something I could get enthusiastic about. I want my flask back right now. And I promise to use it for the right reasons.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

JD, who's actually pretty much of a teetotaller

HConn and Jamesaritchie, could you explain to a newbie what you mean by flashbacks advancing the story? I guess I'm not really understanding how they would do that, unless you simply mean that they provide the characters' motivation for the current scenes, or something like that?

I used a chapter long flashback in a book to explain something, but it was legit. The MC had a blank in his memory and the chapter filled in the missing time, which was a major plot point.

I never used the device again, but wove past information into the MC's current situation.

You might check Rachel Caine's Ill Wind, which has flashbacks to push the story at certain points. She does them very well, so her example might help you work out how to apply the technique to your work.

Good luck!

Flashbacks, when handled well, can move a story forward in several ways.

• It can show that the animosity between the protagonist and the antagonist is not a recent thing but goes back several decades (or even centuries if you're talking about vampires or the like).
• It can explain the motivation behind certain actions. In one story I wrote I used a flashback of the MC's mother dying of cancer to show why the MC became a professional mercy killer.
• It can emphasize the depth of an emotion. For example, if you have a story that is about how a grieving mother copes with the death of a child using flashbacks will show just how close she was to the child before his or her death.

These are just the ones off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure there are more.

Flashbacks have another purpose too: it sneaks in secret information to the reader unknown to other characters. So the reader can feel 'special' as well as having the character's purpose in life explained.

OTOH it is often overdone to death. Many stories - transposed to film - based on a group of people such as in an airplane crash, treat the reader / viewer with flashbacked backstories of each character - aaarrrghh! The worst example to me is LOST. I know some people enjoy the flashbacks because they often explain why a character behaves as they do, but they often interrupt a train of action or thought with the effect of slowing the action to zero. Too much, and the reader will stop reading.

There is a danger too, of too much exposition. Let the reader have clues to fill in their own backstory - especially for minor characters.

Geoff

GeoffNelder said:

Flashbacks have another purpose too: it sneaks in secret information to the reader unknown to other characters. So the reader can feel 'special' as well as having the character's purpose in life explained.

OTOH it is often overdone to death. Many stories - transposed to film - based on a group of people such as in an airplane crash, treat the reader / viewer with flashbacked backstories of each character - aaarrrghh! The worst example to me is LOST. I know some people enjoy the flashbacks because they often explain why a character behaves as they do, but they often interrupt a train of action or thought with the effect of slowing the action to zero. Too much, and the reader will stop reading.

There is a danger too, of too much exposition. Let the reader have clues to fill in their own backstory - especially for minor characters.

Geoff

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I love the way flashbacks are used in LOST. I don't think they slow the action at all. They explain the action, and always leave the careful viewer wondering what will happen next.

I have a first draft WIP that extensively uses flashbacks. I have the two main characters meet in present day (medieval times), she's a woman of mystery being pursued by ruffians, he's a barkeep. As the story progresses I start alternating present day chapters with flashback chapters that tell us who she is, where she came from and why she's being pursued.

I'm not sure how I feel about it but my one beta reader had no issues with it.

Flashbacks

I use flashbacks very sparingly.

If done well, flashback is a great literary device. It gives the readers insights. It creates suspense. It develops characters. It moves the plot along.

Yes, you heard it. It moves the plot along. Flashbacks shouldn't stop the story in its track and move the readers 10 years before that has nothing to do with the current action. Someone mentioned LOST -- the flashbacks in LOST are not random. They explain and move the plot along.

Like James said, flashbacks get a bad reputation because so many writers use them as a clutch. They can't seem to be able to explain certain things or they can't explain the character unless we know what happens to them 10 years ago, or they don't know how to move the plot along, so they stick a back story in there trying to explain things and it stops the story cold. Or they use the flashback at the wrong time. Right at a cliffhanger they flashback to Little Johnny's 10th birthday that has nothing to do with the current situation, except it tells you more about John's personality. *YAWN*

Mostly, it just shows that the writer doesn't trust herself. That's when you realize the writer has used flashbacks poorly to justify either a situation or a characterization.

When you use a flashback, you need to examine:

1. Is it necessary? Can the information be integrated in the current story line via dialogue, internal monologue, etc.? This can be fixed in rewrites by cutting and pasting...

2. Are you telling the flashback at the right place? Is the flashback integrated in your current story? This can be fixed in rewrites by moving things around...

3. Can the back stories be COMPLETELY cut out and you won't lose anything? Sometimes writers feel like they NEED the back stories but in fact, they don't. The back stories are essential for them to understand their characters, but they are not necessary for the readers. During rewrites, you need to examine each back story and see if they really are necessary.

Thank you, everybody, for your helpful comments. I understand what you are saying. I will have to read my flashbacks as objectively as possible.

Thanks for your time!

I enjoyed the flashbacks in the first season of "Lost," and thought it was interesting that a technique that seldom works well in a written medium worked so well in a visual medium. Just goes to show you that it's a matter of the deftness and skill of the creator, rather than the technique itself.

BUT, I found that in the second season, at least in some episodes, "Lost" became an object lesson in flashbacks that were NOT handled well. There were episodes where we flashed back on one of the characters who'd already had his/her backstory examined in a previous episode, and the new flashbacks didn't add anything to the previous ones. I don't recall the exact episodes, but I vaguely recall that we learn early on that Kim (is that his name? The one who doesnt' speak English) is a violent guy, and he was having marital problems. The second season episode where we're flashing back on him, we learn: he is a violent guy, and he was having marital problems. If I remember correctly, the same thing happened with Locke. First season, we learn that his biological father is a jerk, and Locke was gullible, and second season, we learn that his biological father is a jerk, and Locke was gullible. Okay. Nothing new there. And that's what happens in some novel flashbacks: they're overkill. We're not learning anything that's new and significant, anything we, as the readers, care about.

JD

NeuroFizz said:

To add to what Birol just said (which is good advice), backstory should be introduced in advance of when it is needed or it can come off as awkward or contrived. Besides, if you do it in advance, the reader may feel like he/she is involved in putting the pieces of the story together, rather than just being told about it. Also, large chunks of backstory as flashbacks can be a problem because it takes the reader out of the flow of the story. One tactic is to sprinkle in little bits of backstory so it doesn't seem obstrusive. Here's an exercise you may or may not want to try--it may not work for all writers since there are a variety of writing techniques that are as varied as the authors who use them. List in a phrase or sentence (or two) the events of backstory you need to, and want to introduce. Next, arrange the events in two lists; one in order of importance to the story, and one in chronological order of appearance in the story. From these two lists you can balance the chronological need with the overall importance and get a single list of events you want to include. Now you have to find ways to sprinkle these events into the story. A good way is to select some of your scenes in which you show some characterization. Have current events trigger reactions or short memories within the context of one of the backstory items such that it helps explain the character's current response. If these stimulus-response sequences can be done with several small events early in the story, the reader is set up for the character's responses to larger events, and the character's behavior will not appear to "come out of the blue." Once again, this strategy will not work for every writer, and it will not work for every story. It's just one of many ways to deal with backstory and flashbacks.

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Thank you so much for this, I had never considered this technique, but know it would work for me. I live for organization and I am working on a short story right now that I keep thinking needs some backstory but i didn't want to use a flashback. You just solved my problem.