Flashbacks

Personally, I'd save the flashbacks for a little later in the novel. Maybe a few sentences here or there is fine in the opening sections, but deep flashbacks work best later. Also, pick them carefully. Mine often get slashed in half by editors. Happy flashbacking.

I wouldn't want to read flashbacks right away. Or, at least, not all of them at once dumped in the beginning. That would bore me as a romance reader. I want to read about the current romance, with a few flashbacks here and there.

My suggestion would be to "sprinkle" flashbacks here and there in bite-sized pieces, while telling the current storyline. You could also have the characters briefly think about a flashback when they do or see something that reminds them of said flashback.

Just a suggestion, of course. It depends on how you write the flashbacks, how many, and when/where to put them in your story.

My flashbacks get buzzcut by editors. But I do them anyway and see what will survive. Here's an interesting piece on them with some solid advice. But, of course, you do you!

http://www.writersdigest.com/qp7-mi...tion/3_tips_for_writing_successful_flashbacks

This could work, but every one of those flashbacks would need to serve the overall story. Pulling the reader back and forth between past and present runs the risk of upsetting the flow and yanking them out of the narrative altogether. Another concern I have is that you may end up running out of flashback material as you get further into the novel and find yourself coming up with things just to continue meeting the expectation that there must be one in every chapter. Like others have pointed out, backstory is best "sprinkled" into the main story. Is it possible that the story you really want to tell begins earlier along the timeline? Just something to think about.

While I haven't read any books that utilize the technique you've proposed, I have read a few where chapters alternate between past and present. Roni Loren's Crash Into You and Megan Hart's Deeper both spring to mind. I would recommend checking them out to see if that technique appeals to you. At the very least, it would give you the opportunity to study how other authors play with flashbacks and backstory.

Good luck!

I remember reading a book with a similar technique (although eff if I can remember the title/author now...). It worked for me because each was very short and somehow related to the live action in the chapter. For me this would be the key. Not just a random flashback, but something that informs each specific chapter. Otherwise it could feel random.

Good luck! It can't hurt to try anything, even if in the end it might change.

I was struggling with this for my current novel. It has a TON of set up but I didn't want to bog down the book with flashbacks. I can't say none of it isn't necessary to the story (but what is I either alluded to through dialogue or some other means). I decided to write a few chunks in short stories (eventually to release separately) for those that do want to experience more about the characters and how they got to their present state. Then I could keep the absolute minimum needed to tell the story and still feed my inner writer.

Im struggling with this myself. I also have a book where it is very important to the story to have flashbacks written in, I am not 100% set on this but I think what I will end up doing is writing a short prologue with one of the main/important flashback scenes in the beginning to set up the characters and then leave them out for a while so that the readers can get to know the characters now. I figured that if the reader didnt yet care about the characters, they wouldnt care about the flashbacks. Some are going to be my character remembering certain scenes through dreams and then a mix of dialogue that might mention certain past events. I had to take a look at each flashback I was going to write and ask myself why it was important to the characters.

All that being said, I am just an aspiring author as well so not sure how helpful it is

I personally dislike flashbacks. The problem I see with flashing back to when he is falling in love as a kid is that he is fantasizing her as a perfect, innocent memory(memories are inheriently colored by our perception). The real her is a flawed person whose life excperiences change her. That is who I want to see him fall in love with.

If you are going to do it (1) make sure they are SHORT. The story you are writting is taking place in the here and now. Get to the romance. (2) Ask yourself 'If the editor accidentally left this scene out when it went to print, would it cause a problem for the reader?' If the answer is honestly YES, keep it. If not, cut it.

You might also consider "cheating" and doing the flashback info via dialogue. I'm trying that technique in my WIP.

"That day you caught up with me in the hallway was the best day of my life," he told her.

She replied, "I felt so scared. I was like, here he is, this all-that guy. That's how I thought of you then. And here I'm just a freshman whose only goal is to pass English."

"I'm glad you pushed past the scared, sweetheart. If you hadn't, where would we have ended up?"

This is just an example, and sort of lame, but if you have them refer to a shared, past experience in dialogue, then it doesn't even count as a flashback and may survive your editor's m/a/c/h/e/t/e red pen.