To flashback or not to flashback?

[Jason L.]

Flashbacks suck. Change my mind.

Let me start by saying this: I am emphatically anti-flashback. They are almost always foreign bodies in the story. And what's happened in the meantime? Look at this story, for instance:

Kate looked up and saw Daniel sitting across the restaurant from her, and it was like the years had just slipped away, and she was twenty-two again and desperately in love (and on and on and on) and meanwhile I'm thinking, honey, you ordered veal parm, and if you don't tuck into it now the cheese will have congealed and then it's not really worth eating. Okay, so that's interesting, but the waiter thinks you're having a stroke because you've been staring at this dude for like seventeen minutes. Kate? KATE! Earth to...I'm throwing breadrolls at you. There. I've just thrown a breadroll at you. Nothing. Why are you always doing this?

Kate snapped out of it and took a bite out of meal. "Oh, it's cold. Where were we in the conversation? And why are you already on the dessert course?"

That's the thing: the reader both likes seeing the past, but knowing that the main character is about to miss her train stop, that the coffee must be cold by now, the houseguests have likely pilfered all the silver, and the car is not going to drive itself.

That's my little rant.

Now change my mind.

 

[James Charles]

Flashbacks suck. Change my mind.

Let me start by saying this: I am emphatically anti-flashback. They are almost always foreign bodies in the story. And what's happened in the meantime? Look at this story, for instance:

Kate looked up and saw Daniel sitting across the restaurant from her, and it was like the years had just slipped away, and she was twenty-two again and desperately in love (and on and on and on) and meanwhile I'm thinking, honey, you ordered veal parm, and if you don't tuck into it now the cheese will have congealed and then it's not really worth eating. Okay, so that's interesting, but the waiter thinks you're having a stroke because you've been staring at this dude for like seventeen minutes. Kate? KATE! Earth to...I'm throwing breadrolls at you. There. I've just thrown a breadroll at you. Nothing. Why are you always doing this?

Kate snapped out of it and took a bite out of meal. "Oh, it's cold. Where were we in the conversation? And why are you already on the dessert course?"

That's the thing: the reader both likes seeing the past, but knowing that the main character is about to miss her train stop, that the coffee must be cold by now, the houseguests have likely pilfered all the silver, and the car is not going to drive itself.

That's my little rant.

Now change my mind.

And it seems so many TV shows and even many movies flashback now. They open with an action sequence then it is: Three years ago....

 

[Nikky Lee]

Flashbacks can work great when they're used well. I generally follow the rule that a scene needs to either reveal character or progress the plot, ideally both. So, I use flashbacks to help reveal character and provide context (i.e. this is why this character is behaving the way they are/this is what made them this way). In that sense, I guess I view flashbacks a bit like worldbuilding. They're often better sprinkled in rather than delivered in chunks.

Similar to worldbuilding, overusing flashbacks can risk stalling the plot. (That said, if you have a plot that is zooming from action to action to action, a flashback might be a good way of slowing the story down to give the reader a breather). Too long a flashback could also lead you into info dump territory. So, I think it's the timing and length of the flashback that author's need to consider. If the scene is one that has the character interacting with something, e.g. conversing with someone over dinner, then I'd opt to keep any flashback very short and slip it in between the dialogue. If the story is at a point where the plot is "breathing" e.g. characters are transitioning from one scene to another, then you could include something longer.

 

[Piedrito]

I'm miserable now reading this. I was hoping no one would remind me. I have nameless victim dies in first page. Then Chapter 2 jumps back 20 years to MC's first scene but its high action. Then Chapter 3 is parallel life of bad guy on the other side of the world and his life. Then Chapter 4 is back to present. I can't for the life of me just grab snippets of those "contexts" and have them be mentioned in "present day" activities. Ahh...suffering here with this and will drink some warm milk, go to sleep and forget I saw this page on the forum....because I know its true.

 

[Barbara]

What Nikky says.

Depends on how they're done and why. If done well, they can add to the story, and their existence will make sense.

Depends on the type of story and genre. I'm thinking mystery, crime, suspense. They can be used as, what Agent Pete calls, cookies, dropped in at the right moment to keep the readers hooked. Flashbacks can be used as a strategic tool.

I like reading them when they have a good reason for being there, like: when they're a significant point in the past, when they have caused a change in a character or have changed a situation in the past which affects now, or show trauma. To me they need to be existential, or character building, or add to the suspense, a clue to a puzzle etc etc. A flashback can make a change in the present and trigger an action; basically they need to move the plot forward.

They don't work when they're some twee memory about gazing in someone's eyes and how happy they were back then, dropped in at some convenient moment of the story. I don't like flashbacks which simply give background information for the sake of giving background info. To me they need to have a specific reason for being there at that particular time. And don't crowbar them into the story.

I use flashbacks in my current WIP. I've recently been playing around with them. I use them strategically to unravel and build the story in the present, to create the suspense of "oooh what's happened to her", and to show how Mia became to be the damaged person she is and why she's doing what she does. They're short (some are one or two sentences), to the point, like a flash of a thought, impactful (hopefully), significant. Some moments in her present are an emotional trigger for her and create a flashback. Most flashbacks move the plot forward. And I use some (and probably fail) to show how her psychological state (it can read like a stream of consciousness) and how unsettled and knotted up her thinking is. Peoples thoughts are a bit like that. We get memories pop into our minds.

When using a flashback, ask the question: does the story work without it? If yes, delete it.

 

[Sedayne]

When using a flashback, ask the question: does the story work without it? If yes, delete it.

Absolutely this.

 

[Hannah F]

An important issue with using flashbacks is also the narrative POV you are using. If you are in first person or close third, flashbacks sprinkled in will take the reader out of the mindset of the character if they are information for the reader rather than what the MC would actually be thinking at that moment. To me, there is a great difference between flashback snippets (which should literally be over on a flash) or flashback chapters. Flashback chapters can work really well as reveals in the story.

(Though, I have to admit, my cappuccino has sometimes gone cold while I've been lost in a nostalgic daydream.)

 

[JohnBertel]

there is a great difference between flashback snippets (which should literally be over on a flash) or flashback chapters. Flashback chapters can work really well as reveals in the story.

Yes, it's hard to be for or against flashbacks because the word is used for many different things. You can even have flashback-like passages in dialogue if the character talks vividly about a past event and the reader gets caught up in it, almost as if we were reading about the event in the text.

 

[Pamela Jo]

See if TYM can change your mind. Her recent backstory course had more than an hour on flashbacks. It helped me decided between dual timeline and flashbacks for my WIP.
I side with Hannah on flashback chapters. Since that is what I did.
I can eat and daydream at the sometime. "Oh look the veal parm is gone." It could also mean the wolfhound asked, "You gonna eat that?" and decided in a nanosecond the answer was no. And he'd get away with it because I would assume I ate it.

 

[Jason L.]

And it seems so many TV shows and even many movies flashback now. They open with an action sequence then it is: Three years ago....

In the eighties, Sidney Sheldon would do that. He would open with something very thrilling and hooky and then jump back twenty years, and it would drive me crazy because mostly the stuff twenty years ago was either bewildering or boring or both.

 

[Peyton Stafford]

I hate flashbacks. Like scenes in which the POV character internalizes and raves. Pathetic. We all want fiction without emotion. "Just the facts, Ma'am," as Joe Friday used to say. Along those lines, no stories within stories. Just give us a simple story from one POV, set in a single time frame. Keep it from one POV, without ambiguity, so it's like real life. Everything is clear and easy to understand, just like real life. Why would an author want to introduce ambiguity into a perfectly outlined story?

 

[Mel L]

We all want fiction without emotion. "Just the facts, Ma'am," as Joe Friday used to say.

What? No emotion? Just the facts? That's not fiction, that's reporting! And if I want that kind of story, I'll read the paper.

No, to me flashbacks are part of reality. I don't know about you, @Jason L. , but I am never fully 100% there eating my veal parm. I'm somewhere else half the time, thinking about the last time I ate there, or how I'll get that tomato stain out of my shirt. So if you want to write close third or first POV, flashbacks (definition TBD) can add oodles of character and context.

 

[Barbara]

I am never fully 100% there eating my veal parm. I'm somewhere else half the time, thinking about the last time I ate there, or how I'll get that tomato stain out of my shirt

Yep. I'm like that. I try to practice mindfulness and to be fully in the moment, but fail mostly.

I often wonder what kind of chaos we would see if we could have insight into other people's heads. The human thinking, psyche or experience isn't linear. At least, mine isn't but maybe I'm just odd.

There's a novel by a German author, Peter Handke (winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature). I forget which one it was. Might might be The Goalkeeper's Anxiety... Might not be that one (I was 18 when I read it 50 million years ago), might not even be this author (aren't I helpful??), where the MC has all sorts of thoughts pop into his head at random times. The story is told that way (a bit of a stream of consciousness at times) and it shows the MC's disintegrating mind. It's a big classic in German and German-Swiss literature and a good example how well that kind of flashback/thought hopping writing can work. I'll try figure out exactly which author and exactly which book it was, but I'm fairly sure it was Handke.

I liked it because it's an interesting look at humans thought / awareness, with many of our thoughts being incomplete, or half formed, or hoping all over the place, stuff popping into our heads.

 

[Nikky Lee]

I liked it because it's an interesting look at how humans think, with many of our thoughts being incomplete or hoping all over the place, stuff popping into our heads.

Having had to transcribe interviews many a time I can attest to this! What I remember being the most surprised about was how scatterbrained a real conversation actually is on paper. What we think sounds perfectly coherant when it's spoken aloud is utterly fragmented when it's transcribed. People change topic mid-sentence, repeat things, loose their train of thought half way through an answer all the time.

If we do all this while speaking aloud, our internal dialogue must be absolute chaos. I'd hate to be telepathic.

The human thinking, psyche or experience isn't linear.

Definitely not. There's some really interesting stuff around how our primal brain systems (system one) make most of our decisions without us being aware of it. This book covers a lot of it if you're interested: https://www.amazon.com.au/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555 (note: I haven't read it, I know about it from working in market research as we have a team that specialises in testing system one responses).

 

[Mel L]

I often wonder what kind of chaos we would see if we could have insight into other people's heads. The human thinking, psyche or experience isn't linear. At least, mine isn't but maybe I'm just odd.

We're all odd. But at least we're not alone!
And that book sounds just my thing. Will look it up!

 

[LJ Beck]

@Jason L. - Three words on flashbacks....

"Project Hail Mary"

That is all.

 

[Jonny]

Never seen anything wrong with flashbacks. As with all writing devices, if used judiciously and with skill they are a longstanding and perfectly acceptable storytelling technique.

But as with most things in artistic endeavours: "one man's meat..."

 

[Peyton Stafford]

Yep. I'm like that. I try to practice mindfulness and to be fully in the moment, but fail mostly.

I often wonder what kind of chaos we would see if we could have insight into other people's heads. The human thinking, psyche or experience isn't linear. At least, mine isn't but maybe I'm just odd.

There's a novel by a German author, Peter Handke (winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature). I forget which one it was. Might might be The Goalkeeper's Anxiety... Might not be that one (I was 18 when I read it 50 million years ago), might not even be this author (aren't I helpful??), where the MC has all sorts of thoughts pop into his head at random times. The story is told that way (a bit of a stream of consciousness at times) and it shows the MC's disintegrating mind. It's a big classic in German and German-Swiss literature and a good example how well that kind of flashback/thought hopping writing can work. I'll try figure out exactly which author and exactly which book it was, but I'm fairly sure it was Handke.

I liked it because it's an interesting look at humans thought / awareness, with many of our thoughts being incomplete, or half formed, or hoping all over the place, stuff popping into our heads.

This?

Peter Handke | Biography, Books, & Facts

Peter Handke, Austrian playwright, novelist, and poet known as one of the most original German-language writers of his generation. The dominant theme of his writings is that ordinary language and everyday reality have a constraining and deadening effect on human beings. Handke won the 2019 Nobel...

www.britannica.com