Flashbacks are tools for the fiction writer to add depth and interest to a story, as they can be a part of any piece of writing in any genre and type. Flashbacks are important to the drama of the story, because they take the reader into the lives of the characters on an emotional level and allow them to get into the characters’ thoughts, feelings, and expectations.
The main duty of flashback is to take readers back in time when that time or place in the past is very important to the story and to the present and future of the characters. Similarly, the flashback has to help the reader understand the story. The reader’s understanding usually coincides with the writer’s understanding of his characters and their situations. If a writer hasn’t fully developed their characters in their mind, flashbacks can risk being irrelevant to the story.
Let’s say, in a very short story, a character named Mike eats a quart of ice cream at one sitting and remembers, in a flashback, his mother serving him ice cream. Later, Mike goes to his job at the CIA and discovers that his best friend is a mole. After some incidents, he proves who the mole is to his bosses. Here, the ice cream incident and its accompanying flashback have nothing to do with the discovery of the mole, so it should not be included in Mike’s discovery of the mole story, even if the writer can imagine it. It helps to bring out the tender side of this character.
One way to bring flashbacks into a story is to give them in full at the beginning as a prologue, introduction, or introductory chapter. The advantages of total flashbacks are:
o Full flashbacks allow you to tell the story without stopping the action.
o They give a chronological order to the story.
o During the narration, critical backstory data serves to give depth to the story.
o Writing the full flashback is easy for the writer. Once you’re done with the flashback backstory, telling the real story becomes easy.
The disadvantage of full flashback at the beginning of a story is that it can bore the reader with the distant past, instead of drawing them into the action of the story and the present time of the story.
Another way to insert flashbacks into a story is to give them in several large chunks within the story. The film industry can use cuts for this; however, when writing straight fiction, large chunks work best only in slow-moving stories. If the writer is telling a fast-paced story in any genre, he should avoid large portions of flashbacks.
Also, this type of flashback is best used by noting its beginning and end in some way or possibly italicizing the flashback. As for the dialogue in much of the flashback, it can be summarized, if possible.
A third way to insert flashbacks into the story is to insert small flashback snippets, possibly in a sentence or two where necessary. The advantages of this technique are:
o The writer has flexibility in telling the story, in terms of how to tell it and how much it will tell the reader.
o The writer can weave together critical information and background material at any time they wish.
o You can use it to build suspense or to engage the reader’s curiosity
o You can create characters in layers during the writing of the true story.
On the downside, if mishandled by the writer, this technique can cause the reader to confuse the past with the present.
Some points to pay attention to when creating flashbacks are:
o The flashback content should not be more exciting than the actual story.
o A flashback works best if it follows a strong scene.
o The writer should orient the reader to the beginning of the flashback in time and space. If the flashback transition isn’t written properly, the past and present can become a jumble in the reader’s mind.
o During the review process, it may be necessary to leave out minor incidents in flashbacks and trim existing ones.
o In terms of usage, the writer may want to make use of tenses to signal the beginning and end of a flashback. If the story is told in the present tense, the entire flashback may be in the past tense. If the story is told in the past tense, the flashback can start with the past perfect to indicate the change, then the flashback can continue with the past tense again, so as not to overuse the heavy past perfect. The flashback ending can then be maneuvered into the past perfect again before continuing the story with the past tense.
Some caveats regarding flashbacks are:
o The writer must not make the flashback content more interesting or longer than the actual story.
o The writer should not present the flashback as the first real scene of the story. This doesn’t always work.
o Flashbacks within flashbacks risk confusing the story and the reader reading it, unless the writer is as experienced as John Updike.
o Too many and too long flashbacks tend to turn a story into an epic. If that is not the intention and there is a limit on the number of words, the writer should be careful with long flashbacks.
o It works best to use flashbacks sparingly and discreetly, as they tend to slow down the pace. An experienced writer will not use flashbacks beyond three quarters of the actual story.