Are flashback scenes considered bad form?

There are countless stories that use flashbacks.

Focus on making what you want to write interesting, rather than worrying about what is or isn't "allowed".

I think flashbacks, like anything else in a story, can work if they're done well. I don't think it works so well when it's used as a device to "info dump" but if it pertains to the story and works within the story, then I think it's totally OK.

From what you've told us, I think use of a flashback would work and be fine.

Relating a story through dialogue (technically, a monologue) is an acceptable way to get the information across concisely and skip any boring bits. It also allows you to avoid any tricky questions that might come up, simply by stating the character in question doesn't know.

You just have to write it with the same care you write every other scene, to make sure it's lively and interesting.

It also allows the audience to fill in the gaps with their imaginations, like the mythology of A Song of Ice and Fire, or Obi-Wan's talk about the Old Republic in Star Wars.

Are any of your current characters involved in the past event? If so, you could also wait till your readers are emotionally invested in your characters, and then jump into flashback. I simply love a good flashback once I'm engaged with the characters. It helps me figure them out.

I had this question in my most recent WIP. I decided to put the traumatic event that will be alluded to in the front of the book, as a short prologue. It's a short scene, fewer than 1000 words, but it has its own narrative tension and ominous conclusion that the reader will (hopefully) be glad to find resolved in the final pages of the book.

Margrave86 said:

Relating a story through dialogue (technically, a monologue) is an acceptable way to get the information across concisely and skip any boring bits. It also allows you to avoid any tricky questions that might come up, simply by stating the character in question doesn't know.

You just have to write it with the same care you write every other scene, to make sure it's lively and interesting.

It also allows the audience to fill in the gaps with their imaginations, like the mythology of A Song of Ice and Fire, or Obi-Wan's talk about the Old Republic in Star Wars.

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I'm not so sure about this - I think you might be using cinematic examples and they don't always work in novels. A sudden monologue can run the risk of becoming either an info-dump or a bit of a Bob-ism ("As You Know, Bob -" ) both of which are best avoided.

soulrodeo said:

I don't want to infodump this event through exposition or dialogue. I'm leaning towards a full narrative flashback scene showing it all as it happened. Is this looked down upon as bad writing, or lazy writing?

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OP, basing it on my own experience, I agree with the others who say that a narrative flashback seems to be perfectly fine at the moment. Also, they're lovely to write

Margrave86 said:

Relating a story through dialogue (technically, a monologue) is an acceptable way to get the information across concisely and skip any boring bits. It also allows you to avoid any tricky questions that might come up, simply by stating the character in question doesn't know.

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This is usually the point at which I close the book and move on to a better one.

As a reader I don’t like flashbacks because they often interrupt the flow / rhythm on the story.

I'm fine with flashbacks as long as they're interesting, relevant, and timely. They should make a difference to the story, and depending on circumstances, to characters' perceptions, of themselves or each other.

IMO the worst way to do a flashback:
====
At the end of chapter X...

Sarah's flashlight quit on her just as she entered the dark room. She slapped the side of the darned thing hoping that it would turn back on, then heard the door shut behind her. Someone else was in the room with her. At last the flashlight came back on, and from the corner of the room the bad man stepped forward and raised his knife.

Beginning of chapter XI...

When Sarah was a little girl she never played with dolls...
====

As horrible as that sort of flashback is, I've read novels by hotshot big name authors that wrote that sort of thing. One was so bad (the flashback lasted several chapters) that I've never read anything by her since.

soulrodeo said:

This is how I’m currently doing it. Tell me if as a reader you would find this annoying and/or lazy.

Character A is the bad guy. Character B is a witch on A’s “team” who wields a certain magic that allows her to manipulate minds. Character C is a regular teenager (YA novel) but she possesses a small ability that is key to A’s plan. C is currently captive. Now A needs C to see how a previous spell went wrong and all the consequences of it so C can use her small ability to play a part in creating the reverse spell. Rather than have A monologue and explain it all verbally, I have B play the previous bad spell event in C’s mind so she can see the destruction of it all as it happened. FYI, this is a subplot. C is the secondary main character.

So would that be annoying/lame to read? I hope that all makes sense!

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I actually think in that scenario, a flashback scene works better than a monologue/dialogue. It uses character abilities, makes sense given the motives at play, and you can make everything much more visceral to the character (and therefor the reader). How awful would it be to have someone force a memory of something terrible into your mind! That's prime conflict/angst just waiting to be written. Frankly, I'd feel cheated if I didn't get a juicy flashback

I don't think revealing backstory through dialogue is inherently bad. I recently had the same choice (flashback or dialogue) in a somewhat similar scene. Character A has captured Character B is trying to convince them to help their cause. I chose dialogue because the interplay between the characters was ultimately more interesting to me than the events themselves. I wanted character A to really get to make their case and twist the telling of events to be maximally convincing, combined with character B's questions and reactions. I also didn't have a mind-witch handy, so transitioning to flashback would have been much less elegant.

soulrodeo said:

This is how I’m currently doing it. Tell me if as a reader you would find this annoying and/or lazy.

Character A is the bad guy. Character B is a witch on A’s “team” who wields a certain magic that allows her to manipulate minds. Character C is a regular teenager (YA novel) but she possesses a small ability that is key to A’s plan. C is currently captive. Now A needs C to see how a previous spell went wrong and all the consequences of it so C can use her small ability to play a part in creating the reverse spell. Rather than have A monologue and explain it all verbally, I have B play the previous bad spell event in C’s mind so she can see the destruction of it all as it happened. FYI, this is a subplot. C is the secondary main character.

So would that be annoying/lame to read? I hope that all makes sense!

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What is the POV for that scene? If third person limited, and if C is the POV character, and the memory flashes in her mind, then it would be happening currently and wouldn't be a flashback at all.

soulrodeo said:

Thank you! And gosh, no, I don’t think backstory through dialogue is inherently bad either. I didn’t mean to sound like I was knocking it. I just meant in my case it would literally be the bad guy just listing what happened to get to the next part of explaining to C why she needs to help. I’ve seen it done well plenty of times. Harry Potter, for one (my go-to reference for anything done well, because what doesn’t that series cover?!). Again, thank you!

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Well, cough, not all the explanation-by-monologue is super-duper great in HP. Like the pages and pages of Voldy explicating things in Deathly Hallows. Or his extended monologue in Goblet of Fire. Mostly, Dumbledore's debriefings work because we're done with the real action and are just filling in some gaps.

In any case, it's like most things in wiring, in that it comes down to execution. Flashbacks as a things aren't verboten or anathema. But they do need to be used for a purpose, to get across the right info at the right time and not as an excuse to info dump.

I don't generally use flashbacks. I tend to work any backstory into exposition or dialogue, usually by implication. I think I only have one or two actual flashbacks, and they're in the same WIP. I used them for similar reasons: this particular WIP takes place over a very limited time period, but the shared family past is very important to current family dynamics. Most of it I worked in through other means, but I wanted to show, directly, the connection between these two characters and a dead person.

soulrodeo said:

So would that be annoying/lame to read?

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If the scene being replayed is redundant (same sequence of events, same details) with one the reader has already seen, then maybe so. But if it contains new information and sheds a different light on events and, ultimately, makes a difference to what the characters do next, then that sounds like it would work fine.

Flashbacks are not really my thing so I never use them, from what I understand though they need to push the story forward. As long as they do that you are on the right track.

You mentioned Harry Potter, and I think that series is a good example of flashbacks working.

In the fourth book, Harry sees Dumbledore's memories in the pensieve. It's both interesting and informative.

In the fifth book, Harry sees Snape's memories of Harry's father. Again, the scene is interesting and gives us a different perspective from what we expected.

In the sixth book, again Harry sees various people's memories to piece together Voldemort's past.

In the seventh, we obviously have Snape's memories, which we see right during the part of the story with the highest tension, and I think that's one of the best parts of the entire series.

If your flashback is interesting and relevant to the present-day story, there's nothing wrong with putting it there. I wouldn't recommend putting it right in the middle of an extremely tense scene. Even Snape's memories occurred during a relative lull between two sections of intense excitement.

No. Flashbacks are just another tool in our writers toolbox. They can be done well, ill, or inbetween. I know one writer who can have flashbacks in flashbacks three deep and still be clear and interesting.

If the scene is dramatic and gripping, consider making it a prologue, OP. It's from the past, and the reader needs to know it to make sense of the story, right? Sounds like the perfect reason to use a prologue to me.

ETA: You don't have to actually call the opening scene a prologue--it can just be chapter one if you prefer. But it still functions the same way.

Flashbacks are okay for me as an opening framing device. The movie Maverick did it very well. The movie opens with Maverick about to be strung up with a horse and a bag of rattlesnakes in a somewhat Snidely Whiplash fashion. Then there's a voice over that says, "It had just been a shitty week..." (or something quite similar) and then it starts with the movie story in linear sequence.

It's a way to jazz up an opener when the narrative material is inherently slow starting for whatever reason, and it can be very effective.

Other than that, I didn't like the flashbacks in Harry Potter, or really, anywhere else. To me it's often a sort of cheap narrative trick. Like the writer couldn't keep my attention or keep me from figuring out who the murderer is (or whatever surprise they wanted to spring on me) if they told me the story straight, so they're going to cut it into pieces to disguise their story weakness. I'm sure there are exceptions and different points of view on all this, but usually I'd rather get a story told to me in a linear fashion.

Consider if Snape had been able to show Harry all this stuff without having to use the pensieve. Imagine how intense that scene could have been--when Harry and Snape finally reach an understanding, with perhaps a wisp of regretful affection on both sides.

It's easy to armchair quarterback this stuff, but I think it would have been a lot more powerful than having it once removed as it were, seeing it in the pensieve. And flashbacks feel once removed to me because they aren't happening in "real" story time.

The point here is not to criticize Rowling because whatever she did obviously worked well enough. But I think it's worth thinking about this sort of thing so that hopefully it can help shape our story outlines and edits.

A lot of readers seem to have problems with flashbacks, but readers don't care. Which pretty much describes most of the things writers argue about

I think readers do care, and will always be aware of something being 'off' if flashbacks - like anything else - are poorly executed.

Flashbacks are fine, but they ought to be used judiciously. The risk is slowing things down too far and frustrating your reader. Whether you frustrate your reader is going to depend on what's happening in "the present" that you're interrupting. Are you leaving your reader on a cliffhanger to go off for several pages into the past, and does that add or detract from the tension? How long is the interruption? If it's short, it can easily be taken in stride. What does the flashback tell us? Can it be conveyed some other way that doesn't interrupt the flow? Is this the only flashback or lengthy reference to/rumination on the past? If your tone is very present-oriented, then a sudden foray into the past may feel tonally off.

CathleenT, I actually feel differently about the Prince's Tale. I thought it was very effective for Harry to see it rather than hear it from Snape. First of all, Snape wouldn't have willingly confessed all to Harry. Secondly, it would've been filtered (even more so than his memories) through his continued dislike for Harry and his continued bad attitude. Thirdly, and as the obverse, Harry would have had a very hard time accepting everything Snape said because of his dislike for Snape. Seeing the memories and having just seen Snape die made it possible for him to accept the story. Basically, their mutual antipathy wouldn't have made it possible for the story to be told and accepted in any other way. Fourth, it was an effective, visceral way for us to experience it, rather than to just hear Snape monologue about it. Fifth, it was made all the more effective and poignant because by that point Snape was dead. Last, I think it was something Harry needed to experience, think about, and wrestle with alone. If Snape had been there, it would've been all about their loathing for one another, and at that moment it had to be all about what Harry had to do next. We are cheated of the possibility of a rapprochement, but I don't know that that would've rung true, and anyway it's part of why death is so shitty: you don't always get that final rapprochement. So, er, I agree with Rowling's choice whole-heartedly. [Spoiler-tagging just in case.]

Flashbacks are fine as long as they point toward the main plot, are interesting, and don't interupt the flow. I use them in dialogue, which works well when a character is spilling their guts about an event that shaped the person they became.