How do you use flashbacks in writing?

You want to see flashbacks done extremely well, look at The DaVinci Code. Say what you might about liking or not liking the book, but the way Brown handled the flashbacks was masterful.

I wouldn't know how Brown writes flashbacks. I didn't get past page one.

I personally don't write flashbacks in terms of an entire scene. I try to write them as I personally remember things. I don't recollect entire scenes, just snippets, details of the moment that stood out to me.

When my narrator goes into back story it is typically set off by an event or thing. I don't really call them flashbacks either. He's more just explaining plot points by looking at past moments - exposition of backstory.

Is it something about the bath, the bubbles, the being underwater that causes the flashback or is it just a random memory?

Just an example:

Clara closed her eyes as she relaxed in the bath. The foam of the bubbles tickled against the skin of her arms and chest as they surrounded her. She leaned back and allowed herself to slide below the surface, to submerge. The relaxation that was her goal melted away underwater as the warm water covered her face. The sensation, a familiar one, of holding her breath, and warm water against her face sent a cascade of images through her mind. The bath and her mother. Clara was young. Her mom sang to her as she washed the young girls hair. Her long thin fingers stroked Clara's head. Then gasping, the hand that had just so gently touched her held her below the surface. The struggle to resurface against the strong hand holding her down, flailing against the water. The singing, muffled by the water, still sounded like "Yellow Submarine" but garbled and ominous. The sharp pain in her lungs signaled she was too long without breath. Clara panicked and sprung from the water; she burst through the surface and sent clouds of bubbles around the bathroom. She heaved for breath and scrambled from the tub.



er....something like that. It could actually do more showing and less telling, but hell, it was spur of the moment and I think you'll get the idea.

Generally, too much.

How do you use flashbacks in writing?

Sparingly.

I try to make them short and sweet. I try to slip them in only where they are needed. Long flashbacks tend to distract the reader it seems. I don't want them to get so wrapped up in a flashback that they forget about what's going on in the "present".

Of course this is only true in MY flashback sequences which, as I said, are usually put into the middle of scenes. If a flashback is the central part of a chapter I suppose it could be longer.

Listen to Uncle Jim.
Yes! Those whole chapter flashbacks are brutal.
Make your point and get out. A true memory resurfacing has very few details. Short and simple.

When I use them, I just jump in. It should be clear that you've moved to the past by the story you're telling. If your character is in the bath and you don't have her get out, then she must be remembering something from her past. As for techniques, some people set it off in italics, but I'd worry more about the actual content for now.

I use flashbacks rarely. Very rarely. If a piece of backstory is that vital to the character's situation (or way of thinking, as is the case in Asphodel) I have to seriously question if it actually IS backstory. I've found over time that most of the flashbacks I use in the first draft of any one of my books can be eliminated in second or third drafts. For the most part they turn out to be something that my writer's brain inserts as a way to explain a character's motivation/beliefs/fears/loves etc. After a second or third draft, those things are usually clearer to a reader and don't require the heavy-handed flashback info dump to explain them away.

That being said, if a flashback is absolutely, positively necessary to relay the information you (the narrator/voice) wish to relay, and judging from the scenario you set out they would seem to have some merit, keep them short and to the point. I wouldn't lay out pages and pages of vivid flashback narrative; at first consideration I'd probably keep them short and fast and almost jagged--if you get my point.

And then, of course, THAT being said I must confess that I began my first book with a nine page scene from my MC's past--set up in a lovely prologue that gave me lots of cut and paste flashback action anytime she needed to get REALLY mad about something. Just get the story down on paper; don't worry about the flashbacks until you're revising. Odds are you'll be able to cut them down substantially once you have a better idea of what you need.

Good luck.

BlueLucario said:

I mean like how do you START a flashback

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Something in the present triggers it. Follow that thought.

DeleyanLee said:

You want to see flashbacks done extremely well, look at The DaVinci Code. Say what you might about liking or not liking the book, but the way Brown handled the flashbacks was masterful.

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In your opinion.

Nothing about that book was masterful - in my opinion. Flashbacks have to be written well to be engaging and I didn't care about one single character in that book which read, to me, like a "don't do this" manual for aspiring novelists.

But how to do flashbacks? I can only say how to not do them. Every time a character looks at a photo or other memento and the author says, "Suddenly, she was ten years old again," or "He felt himself drifting into the past, to that fateful day..." I cringe.

Action triggers reaction, and flashback is a form of reaction. If you are doing it just as an info dump for the reader, you may want to find a better way to couple it to the events of your story that impact your characters.

And, I agree with Uncle Jim. You can also seed a single flashback throughout the story (not tell it all at once), as a way to increase tension or suspense, and as a way to avoid the hell of a tangential flashback abyss.

Could you find some kind of creative transition in her present thoughts that leads into whatever event she is flashin back to. You might need to insert something into the scene to help. "Why is she suddenly recalling old info?" Answering that question will help you transition. If there is no reason. Then you might write about the fact that for no apparent reason these memories came to her.

How do you start a flashback? It depends on what its purpose is. Does the flashback occur in a dream? Does some external event or sensation trigger it? Does the character come across it accidentally while thinking about something else? I think these are questions you have to answer before you get involved in a convoluted series of flashbacks without rhyme or reason. Flashbacks are just memories--when you have a flashback, how does it start for you?

It can be handled simply with format. Ie: In the one flashback my WIP has, I separate the MC's present time from the flashback by double-spacing twice, so a new section has begun. Phrasing and tenses help set the scene as a flashback, and then when it's over I've double-spaced twice again, picking up with the action/setting as it was before. It's all about using your words and phrasing to create the allusion.

If your MC has amnesia, how would they remember anything to flashback?

Are the flashbacks used when she gets snippets of memory back?

BlueLucario said:

What if your MC has amnesia and you NEED those flashbacks. I mean alot of them

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If you need your amensiac MC to get memories back, then you better make sure there is a strong correlation between what she is remembering and the plot in the present, and even more importantly that the pieces (and they can only be small pieces) need to be strung very tightly and cohesively.

BlueLucario said:

What if your MC has amnesia and you NEED those flashbacks. I mean alot of them

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wait a second. Listen for just a moment: flashbacks should be used sparingly if at all. Rarely. Not that often. Not alot. If your amnesiac MC NEEDS the flashbacks to tell her story, why not just tell the story in real time and forget about the flashbacks altogether? The MC needs a pertinent, current time storyline to drive your novel no matter how reliant that storyline is upon the past.

BlueLucario said:

Anyone seen the Bourne Movies? Like Jason who remembers nothing, everything comes to him,. Like visions. I can't explain it.

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Oh dear.

No, seriously. Not to be over-critical, but 'explaining things' is what a writer does, so you'd better learn how to describe things if you're to finish your book.