Sometimes when writing a story, the author needs to go outside of the timeline. When a scene is set during a time earlier than the main narration, the author is using a flashback.
If you wrote a story in which the main character is afraid to swim, you might use a flashback to show a time earlier in his life when he nearly drowned. Flashbacks primarily are used so that the reader better understands the reasons for a main character’s current feelings or way of thinking.
Unfortunately, novice authors often use flashbacks for the wrong reasons, such as to add action to an otherwise flat story. The result is that the technique draws attention to itself and becomes gimmicky.
When utilizing the flashback, follow some simple guidelines:
• The flashback should serve multiple dramatic purposes – A flashback can be at its most dramatic when creating a sense of uncertainty in the reader yet also serving to reveal character or offering hints that bring the character closer to solving the plot. Flashing back to an event that happened the day or week or even month before doesn’t give the main character enough time to process it.
• The event in a flashback shouldn’t occur too close in time to the story’s timeline – Doing so reduces the event’s powerfulness in effecting the main character’s emotions and thoughts during the main story. The trauma of the past event should have shaped the main character’s personality over a long time, making the ability to change and overcome it in the main story difficult.
• The flashback should clearly have occurred in the past – If the reader is befuddled wondering why this event is happening in the present, then the author has not left enough clues about when the event happened in the main character’s life.
• Keep the flashback short – Even if the flashback is action-packed, moving away from the “now” reduces immediacy in a story. A long flashback can confuse readers about what events occurred in the main story.
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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.
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