Anatomy of a Flashback

Preparation

• Framing a flashback 

There are stories that begin with the end of the story and then they go back to the beginning, telling everything as one long flashback. Their plot is about the events that lead to the ending that the writer has already presented. This method is common in fiction and is called ‘framing’. The actual story is the flashback itself. The present is just the frame for the plot and a hook for the reader to make them curious about how events unfold towards the presented ending. 

Example: 

The beginning of this method is usually a shock moment. Your main character finds themselves in a very precarious or unusual situation. Winding back, you start your story to explain how it happened. 

• Evaluate the necessity

Unless you use the framing method, readers are interested in the here and now of your story as that is what carries impact and value. Anything which interferes with this can be a distraction. If the episode from a character’s past can be told in a few lines of exposition (telling it, not showing it) then that is what you should do. Evaluating how essential a flashback is is important.

• Hook the reader first

Any flashback represents a disruption to the story currently being told, so it is vital that you only move back in time once the reader is hooked. For example, use a flashback during an exciting part of the story when the audience will be itching to find out what happens next.

The Transition

• Use triggers for natural flashbacks

Try incorporating the flashback into your character’s experiences. When experiencing a flashback in real life, it is often triggered by something significant. You can get creative with this. It can be triggered by 

• an object
• a situation
• emotions 
• senses (smell, sound or sensation)

Example:

Your character finds themselves in a childhood place, they find an old photograph or eat something that reminds them of their past and leads back to a very specific memory.

• Mark the transition

Flashbacks can be disorienting for the reader. You have to make sure that the readers are aware of the time and the place—both when you move back in time and again when you rejoin the present. There are multiple methods to do this. An elegant way would be incorporating it among other information, such as, why that flashback is important, or what it is about? A less subtle way would be simply stating the place and time. The latter is often skipped by readers, so try to incorporate it into the story instead of having it as a separate headline. 

Example:

You can use sentences like:

• When she had just turned seven…
• On her last birthday…
• The day her mother died…
• Switch tenses

Change the verb tense to mark the change in time. If your narrative is in past tense (eg. she wrote), the first sentence of the flashback should be in past perfect (she had written). You only have to maintain it for one or two sentences, and then you can go back to simple past tense so that the reader experiences it in real time. If you’re writing in present tense (she writes), the shift goes from present to simple past (she wrote). 

The Flashback

• Keep a tight focus

If you need to use a flashback, cut it down to its key moments. If you have to lead your readers through pages and pages of backstory, incorporate the flashback into the greater time frame of the story instead.

A flashback should always serve as a tool to advance what is happening in the present. Focus on events that are important for the present story line. Treat a character’s backstory like you would get to know a person in real life: You wouldn’t expect to hear about someone’s 10th birthday unless it was somehow relevant to the present. You can still create all this backstory, but use it in your story when it fits the plot naturally, and do not force all backstory in at once and solely through flashbacks.

• Dramatize your flashbacks

Longer flashbacks should be stories of their own that strongly tie to the present. They should have goals and conflicts and resolutions, and not just a mass of dull-but-essential information. This can be just as damaging to a story as too much exposition.

Ending the Flashback

• End a flashback with a transition

The last sentences of the flashback should be used in a strategic way to bring your reader back into the main storyline. Remember to make it natural. Your character’s musing can be interrupted by something or it can be a gradual transition. Remember your grammar shift from the first transition too; once the flashback ends, you’ll return to the verb tense of the main story.

• Include after effects

When the flashback is part of a memory, it should have an effect on the character that is reliving it. There can be lingering emotions, flashbacks can also be part of resolutions and actions.

Perhaps the most important consideration is how the flashback affects the reader’s understanding of the story and the character’s motivations. Did it cause the reader to reinterpret what they know of the character so far? Will it inform their view of the character going forward? Give the flashback an intended effect that makes it important for the story.

Example:

A dark side of a character is revealed to the reader or a trauma that explains some previously unexplained actions and reactions. Your character should feel according to the kind of flashback they just had. Maybe they’re melancholic or get homesick when they are reminded of a nice memory. Or they are shaken by reliving traumas they have suppressed.