Flashbacks without the clunk

Do what is known as a 'Flashback-Thought" The main premise being that our thoughts of the past interrupt us all the time even as we are involved in current tasks. Combining your character's past memories, feelings, quirks, etc WITHIN a current scene can enrich the scene and the story immeasurably without having to resort to a long, obtrusive Traditional Flashback. The same ground can be covered in a much more dynamic and interesting way because we get to experience the Point-Of-View character's emotional triggers etc and also how the POV character CURRENTLY feels about their past thoughts/experiences right away, within the immediate scene, itself, because we never have to leave it if the author uses a Flashback-thought rather than the somewhat clunky Traditional Flashback Scene.

Sol Stein explains it like this in his book 'On Writing;.

"The first three pages of my novel Living Room' show the heroine, Shirley Hartman, locking the door of her apartment in a Manhattan highrise, taking the elevator to the top floor, and climbing the stairs to the roof. Then we get her thoughts, which are interspersed with thoughts of the past. Without those thoughts of the past as well as the present the scene would lose impact"

I hope I'm explaining it adequately. I don't have the energy right now to fully type out the example he gives but if you have any further questions, just ask.

Hey,

I don't know enough about using flashbacks effectively (unobtrusively) to give you advice I'd be comfortable with. I tend to avoid flashbacks, myself but what you're saying could definitely work...I just don't have the level of experience in using Flashbacks where I'd be comfortable in saying: "you should do this" And I won't give advice I'm not completely confident in. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Flashbacks just aren't my area of expertise.


Take care,
-BS

NiamhEliza said:

I would like to explain her backstory in a series of random flashbacks (although the story in the present is chronological). The number of flashbacks would gradually decrease as the character integrates with her new environment.

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What do you mean by random? If someone/something/some incident in her present life or present scene triggers off a memory, that can work well. I would recommend keeping such backstory comments and memories short, though, and scatter them. I'd also avoid clunky cue-phrases like "her mind drifted back to the day..." There are more elegant ways.

Check out Sara Gruen's "Water for Elephants" for an elegant way to tell a story using flashback. I usually loathe them, but I really enjoyed her style.

The biggest problem that I see with this approach is introducing the first flashback. If you brought me back in time very well from the start, I would be willing to follow along. I would need to be very grounded in time; dating the chapters, perhaps starting with the date and the location at the start of each one. Maybe even including the age of the character during the flashback, so I wouldn't have to do any math. (yuk. math.)

Are the events of the past going to be directly related to what is happening now? If there's some parallel between the stories, it would be fairly easy to follow along, especially if the flashback scenes were much shorter than the current-day ones. While it is interesting to know what has brought the character to where he is now, I'm mostly interested in his future.

I'm in agreement with Sol Stein on this matter. When I have things about the past that I have to drop into the story, I introduce them through the character's thoughts (and I don't italicize the thought and write it as if it were dialogue, and then write a whole scene like that). Barring that, I introduce them in conversation between two characters, because it keeps it somewhat alive and interesting.

Remember, most people have a lot of backstory, and most of it isn't very interesting. Be careful what bits of her life you choose to present.

It sounds like what you want to use is In Medias Res (In the midst of things) which is the equivalent of those old movies where the screen goes all swimmy and suddenly, it's five years earlier and our axe murderer has just married Mike Meyers.

Since your novel seems to be based around flashbacks, my usual advice ("don't do it,") won't help in the slightest bit. So, that aside, let me instead advise that you be careful on how strong you play the emotion in the flashback scenes. The fact that they've already occured can detract from how interested, or involved, the reader will actually get with these scenes.

Putting in flashbacks can be tricky. Remember, that characters, like humans, have word or object association. Maybe your character finds an item linked to the flashback?

If you go to Absolute Individual: Life in a Bubble in the "Share Your Work" forum, you can read how I've put in flashbacks. During chapter two there is a humourous story woven in. The hospital shower one. Yes, it's an embarrassing nude tale. We all have them, don't we? Don't just sit there, put your hand up! I know you have one, too! lol

S.

Although I otherwise didn't care for the book, "The ***** Posse" is told halfway in present day and halfway in the past. Not exactly flashbacks, as each chapter takes place in its own era, but it was well-done and never confusing where in time we were.

Um, make that b.itch posse. It can be the title of a book but I can't post on the board? hm.