Comments on: Looking backward I

By: pcwrede

pcwrede — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:40:22 +0000

green_knight – I don’t actually use major flashback scenes a lot in my work; I mostly use mini-flashbacks (one or two paragraphs) to get background or backstory in without interrupting the flow. With something like your guy taking the trip, I wouldn’t usually bother doing the quick intermediate bits as flashback, since they happen in order within the story. If the intermediate nuggets are important enough to show in detail at all, they’re usually important enough to show in order. Unless, of course, the whole point is to suppress some of the information about what happened in the interim because it will be more effective if it’s revealed later.

The main use for flashbacks, IMO, is as a more dramatic way of getting important background/backstory across (more dramatic than exposition or dialog, which are the other two basic ways). Playing around with the chronological structure – alternating present-day-story scenes with years-or-centuries-ago-story scenes, for instance – seems like a whole ‘nother thing for me, though I think that technically, you’re right: that would be considered using flashbacks, too.

Alex – I’d say you have the right idea. Maybe this series of posts will help. Do you have any specific questions?

Chicoy – You actually have three possible choices for this kind of thing: You can “close” the frame when the story reaches the “present” and then proceed on; you can ignore the frame when the story reaches the present and continue on; or you can close the frame and open a new frame. Well, OK, four choices: you can go back to the initial part of the frame and move it forward in time until it comes after the end of the story, so that one framing sequence will frame the entire book. Which thing you choose to do depends on the kind of story you’re telling and how you feel about it and what you think would be the most effective way to tell your story.

By: Chicoy

Chicoy — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:54:13 +0000

Right now I’m playing with a partial frame story that begins with the heroine writing the events of her past. What I can’t decided is whether to ignore this when she reaches her present and just keep on with the story, or whether a slight change in structure at that point is in order.

By: Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome

Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:37:41 +0000

I’ve been playing with flashbacks in my current novel and I know I’m doing them very badly in the first draft, but at least I’m getting the information down.

In the next draft I’ll make sure they flow better and (likely) either make the scene real time, or get rid of the flashback altogether, slipping in the required information into the rest of the real time stuff.

By: green_knight

green_knight — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:42:45 +0000

I’ve found two main uses for flashbacks. Sometimes theys have a structural function – you want to preserve the flow of the story and you only need one or two nuggets from the events between fully realised scenes so you show the character thinking about a trip, then you show him on the road a month later, with a couple of quick flashbacks to anything that happened inbetween. And the other is that in a mystery plot, flashbacks are often used to build the story. What happens in the story present makes only partial sense until you see the story past unfold in front of your eyes; and both strands – past and flashbacks – are resolved in a climax at the end.

Can you think of other uses?