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Concerning flashbacks

strangerinchi

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Is it necessary to put a chapter break before writing a flashback? Also if my novel is in 3rd person P.O.V., would it be okay to write a character telling the flashback story? Thanks.
 
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blacbird

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It is strongly desirable to put some kind of break before a flashback, if only a scene break. And, yes, you could change POV for a flashback. Many well-known writers have done this, and for just one minor name: Stephen King.

caw
 

ikennedy

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Yeah put some form of indication there is a change in POV before changing that POV. It would be very confusing just to change POV without some form of break.
 

BethS

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It is strongly desirable to put some kind of break before a flashback, if only a scene break. And, yes, you could change POV for a flashback. Many well-known writers have done this, and for just one minor name: Stephen King.

Maybe I'm imagining something different than what you're talking about here, but a POV character cannot (or certainly should not) experience a flashback in someone else's POV. If it's their memory, it can only be seen through their eyes.
 

BethS

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Also if my novel is in 3rd person P.O.V., would it be okay to write a character telling the flashback story?

Not clear to me what you mean by that. As I said to blacbird, if the flashback represents a particular character's memory, it needs to be shown using that character's POV. If that character is not the same one who's narrating the scene just prior to the flashback, then yes, definitely use at least a scene break and possibly a chapter break, and make sure it's clear to the reader that 1) this is a flashback and not just a continuation of the story, and 2) the character narrating it is not the same one as in the previous scene.
 
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Anna Spargo-Ryan

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Is it necessary to put a chapter break before writing a flashback?

No, you can write a flashback anywhere in a chapter, if you do it well. If you don't add a break, you should probably include some other segue to the memory, like something happening in "real time" that makes a character think of the past.

Also if my novel is in 3rd person P.O.V., would it be okay to write a character telling the flashback story? Thanks.

You can have a non-POV character tell the POV character about something from the past, in dialogue. If you're writing the POV character's flashback, the fact that it's third person (not first person) is likely to be irrelevant. If your reader can see POV's other thoughts, they can also see a flashback.
 

Ravioli

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I start every flashback after a blank line, though not necessarily a new chapter. The present fades into the flashback before that blank line by making some reference to the past, or using similar situations, such as a character being trapped in a duststorm in the present, and then the flashback starts with a dust storm, but a place that is obviously elsewhere, elsewhen.

Silly example:

Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla (established to be already married throughout previous chapters) Orli put down her latte and stared at it.

(flashback starts)A crowded coffee shop was too cheesy a place to propose to Orli in, but she was Coffee Girl, and she was enjoying her latte. Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
 

benbenberi

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Is it necessary to put a chapter break before writing a flashback?

No. But you have to make it clear to the reader when the flashback starts and ends. Confusion of timelines is generally fatal for a narrative. Chapter break is one common way to mitigate the risk, but it's far from the only way, and given the particulars of your story and flashback other techniques may (or may not) be more effective.

Also if my novel is in 3rd person P.O.V., would it be okay to write a character telling the flashback story? Thanks.

It's always possible to include a story-within-a-story narrated by any character. Sometimes it works very well. Sometimes it doesn't. There are 2 major areas of risk in this technique: you have to have absolute control & clarity with regard to POV, and you have to make sure the narrated story-within-a-story does not break the reader's engagement with the main story but also holds the reader's attention enough to read it through and not just skip ahead to where the real story resumes.
 

indianroads

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Is it necessary to put a chapter break before writing a flashback?

As with everything, it kinda depends, but I believe there needs to be some sign that THIS is a flashback / memory.
<scene 1> MC hears or learns something that disturbs him (memory is triggered).
<scene 2> Away from others and alone he ruminates over a troubling past event.
<scene 3> MC is brought back to the current time by an event or someone disturbing him.

IMO it would be difficult to write the full flashback in the midst of scene 1 because things might get tangled up... but a better writer than I could probably handle it... and could probably make that tangle especially intriguing. This is what happens with those afflicted with PTSD - they're triggered, and launched directly into the memory - they are there, reliving it, and have trouble discerning reality and pulling themselves back into the current moment. Example: At a birthday party a balloon pops, and a Marine dives under the nearest table - he is immersed in that memory, shaking and sometimes crying, remembering how his friends died. In that moment, the Marine is living concurrently in two different time periods, what is current becomes the background, and the memory moves to the foreground.

Also if my novel is in 3rd person P.O.V., would it be okay to write a character telling the flashback story? Thanks.

The amount of information about a troubled past that anyone gives a stranger will likely be limited. I don't think it would be as raw and emotional filled as what was going on internally.
 

Odile_Blud

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I think it's fine to do it without it. Have the character reminiscence and take us into a flashback.

For the second question, do you mean in dialogue? I've read books in third person where the character tells the flashback story, and they turned out well, so I see no reason to advise against it.
 
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BenPanced

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Apropos of nothing, I'd started a manuscript and about 1/3 of the way in, I dropped in a flashback.

It took up the remaining 2/3 of the unfinished draft.

MORAL OF THE STORY, KIDS: What was I saying again?
 

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Apropos of nothing, I'd started a manuscript and about 1/3 of the way in, I dropped in a flashback.

It took up the remaining 2/3 of the unfinished draft.

MORAL OF THE STORY, KIDS: What was I saying again?

Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick perhaps you should have written a historical piece and had a flashforward.
 

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Like any of the other issues when writing, as long as it's clear to the reader it doesn't matter at all how you do it.