Flashbacks

FYI, a better way to look for existing discussion threads is to use the "Search This Forum" button at the upper right of any Forum screen. You can search for threads or individual posts. The word "flashback" occurs in 454 threads so far...

Anyway, I think the basic answer about how to include a flashback is "it depends". Sorry. Without seeing how the flashback info relates to the main story, I don't think there's a definitive answer.

Remember, when the narrative enters the flashback, forward progress on the main storyline can stall. So the flashback better be interesting.

Since the flashback is in essence a different (yet linked) story, it might be easier to write the flashback as a whole piece, write the rest of the story, then decide how (and whether) the flashback enhances the main story. Once you know what's there, you can decide how to include it (one section or many teaser sections). Even if you decide against including the flashback, it's still good writing practice.

I think it is important to get context in a flashback. Why are they thinking about that particular aspect of their life? What triggered it? Also knowing what you are showing is important too. Is this flashes of images shown PTSD style - quick, teasing and disturbing insights into the trauma that caused the MCs current mental state? Or are they more fond memories as the MC walks around the house of his birth or sees someone they have not met for a while? In both cases the pacing is different and the style of writing used differs too.

In my current WIP the MC has an implanted video camera which records his life (basically a personal black box recorder). He can access the files that store his 'memories' and view them in his mind's eye. In the story it is going faulty due to a crash and is therefore throwing up random files for him to view and he cannot stop it. I am using this to flashback on elements of his backstory.

Also be careful... in one story (which I never completed, it was my first attempt at a novel but it just did not gel) I had a chapter where one character is reminiscing about the circumstances that led to the battle that she is currently in the middle of. One of the beta readers said they got confused by the shift between what was happening to her now and what had happened in the past. So make sure you make it explicit that it is a flashback.

areteus said:

So make sure you make it explicit that it is a flashback.

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"Fade your voice out like this and cue the organist."

TheIT said:

FYI, a better way to look for existing discussion threads is to use the "Search This Forum" button at the upper right of any Forum screen. You can search for threads or individual posts. The word "flashback" occurs in 454 threads so far...

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FYI, a better way to look for existing threads is to use the "Google Custom Search" at the bottom left of the page...


Anyway,

Three things:
- If you wish to place a flashback in the story, make sure it has some relevancy to the situation at hand. That you're bringing up that particular scene at that particular moment when the story needs it to be brought up.
- Sometimes you don't need the flashback; it might be far more interesting to just drop hints and small explanations into the current narrative instead of breaking off to show it all in a flashback.
- If the events in the flashback are important to the entire story, why not just start writing the story from the flashback?

I also find the Site Specific Google Custom Search box at the bottom left of every page, below the Posting Rules box, to be far more helpful and easier and more tolerant of entered words and phrases than the 'Search the Forum' facility.

The google box will take a single word or a two/three word phrase and from the related threads revealed those with higher numbers will be the more recent.

I would think that a really long flashback, done all at once, could possibly cause the reader to disconnect from the main story. Then again, some have used that as a tool, so that the main plot feels fresh again after a long junket. I guess, as others have said, "it depends." Perhaps there are ways you can chop up the back story so that you can cut over to it as events become relevant to the main plot. This is what I see most often.

Be sure any substantial 'flashback' details contain information the reader needs to know in order to follow the unfolding story, and don't confuse it with details that you may need to know in order to write the story.

Krelian said:

What would be a good time to do this?

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When it's relevant, and when it can actually work to advance the story.

Also, should i put it in a bit clump-like section of the book, or start alternating chapters at some point?

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Hard to say without context. It really depends on what the backstory is supposed to do for the story.

How you handle the flashback will depend, I think, on the story. Make sure that you don't want to just start with the flashback, meaning it's no longer a flashback but just the beginning of the story. Also make sure you really need these flashbacks. Last, make sure you need such long flashbacks--can they be just a few paragraphs, or suggestions here and there?

I had a substantial set of flashback chapters in my most recent WIP. Here's how I handled mine: At first, I alternated chapters, past-present-past-present. It worked. My beta readers weren't confused by what happened when. But all three felt it would be best to NOT alternate the chapters. So, instead, I clumped the flashback chapters together. I had three chapters in the "present", then went back two weeks and proceeded through time until we were back in the "present".

So, after you've made a decision on what you think is best, try it out with betas. Let them know that you aren't sure about the flashback part. Assess their comments accordingly.

Best of luck!

Readers need a lot less backstory than you think.