Let’s Talk About Flashbacks
Flashbacks can be a powerful tool for fiction writers, but they’re tricky to get right.
Everyone gives the advice “show, don’t tell.” And flashbacks show your reader what happened in the past. So you’d think they’d be the best possible tool for conveying backstory. They can be, but it’s not quite that simple…
The problem with flashbacks is that they pull your reader out of the main story to show them, in detail, what happened in the past. This is true of all flashbacks, no matter how expertly they’re written, whether they’re well-placed or not.
Anything that pulls readers out of your story gives them an excuse to close your book and do something else. As writers, we want to keep our readers glued to the page. Which means there’s an inherent conflict between using a flashback and your writerly goals.
Should we avoid flashbacks altogether, then? Not so fast. Sometimes, taking the reader back in time and letting them experience a past moment right along with your POV character is the best way to convey what happened.
So when should you use a flashback, and how do you write a great one?
When To Use A Flashback
Flashbacks let your reader fully experience a moment from the character’s past. All of the character’s thoughts and feelings during the past event are laid out on the page, making flashbacks perfect for the times you want to hit the reader with an emotional punch.
There are no hard and fast rules about when you can use a flashback, but I share the following guidelines with my coaching clients. Use a flashback when:
The flashback conveys something the reader needs to know to make sense of the current scene. It could explain a character’s choice, increase tension/stakes, or heighten emotion;
The character’s internal reaction to the past event is at least as important the event itself. Whatever the character was feeling and thinking during the flashback should influence what’s happening in story present (or the reader’s perception of what’s happening in story present); and
You can’t achieve the same result with a more efficient type of backstory, such as a memory.
Flashback vs. Memory
A flashback brings the reader back in time to live the moment with your character. A memory just gives us a glimpse. A memory is a much more efficient way to provide backstory information. And it’s shorter, so it’s less likely to pull your reader out of the story.
Think about how your memory actually works. Things come back to us in little flashes. A few quick visuals and a feeling or emotion. When you’re tempted to include a flashback, see whether you can convey the key information as a memory instead. Many times, a memory conveyed in two or three well-crafted sentences is more powerful than a flashback. And it has the added benefit of keeping your reader grounded in story present.
How To Write A Flashback
Once you’ve determined that a flashback is the way to go, there are several things to keep in mind while writing one.
Before the flashback, you have to give the reader a reason to care. They have to be interested enough in your character or your world to be curious about their past. (This is why it rarely works to put a lengthy flashback in chapter one—the reader isn’t yet invested enough in your main storyline to be pulled away into the past.) Once the reader is invested in story present, get them to ask a question, then answer it with your flashback.
Trigger the flashback with something from story present. Sight, sound, taste, touch, smell—all of the senses make excellent triggers.
The flashback itself should be a mini-scene, complete with a goal, complication(s), and a choice. Start as close to the pertinent action as possible, and end as soon as it’s over. Don’t forget to include interiority. The whole purpose of a flashback is to put your reader into the shoes of your protagonist, so getting your character’s internal thoughts and feelings onto the page is a critical part of the flashback.
Come back to story present using another trigger. You can use anything you want, but a sound works particularly well. Perhaps your character is standing in a coffee shop when you cut to a flashback. The barista reading his name off a cup might be the trigger to pull him back.
Style For Flashbacks
In some books, flashbacks are offset by italics. Don’t do that. You want your reader to move in and out of the flashback without consciously realizing it. Those italics are like a flashing light. They draw extra attention to the flashback instead of minimizing it, and the change in formatting pulls the reader out of the story even more. It takes less finesse to signal a flashback with italics, so agents and readers may also see it as a sign of an inexperienced writer. (I italicized flashbacks in my first novella, and it still makes me cringe.)
Instead of italics, trigger the flashback, and then use past perfect tense with the first 2-3 verbs to indicate that it takes place further back in time. (If you’re writing in present tense, use past tense for flashbacks.)
First Drafts & Flashbacks
I won’t go so far as to say that this post doesn’t apply to first drafts, but don’t let it stifle you. Writing flashback scenes into your first draft can serve a purpose, even if you end up cutting them later.
My first drafts always have long, drawn-out flashbacks in places they don’t belong—even as a book coach who knows better. I used to see this as a flaw. The perfectionist in me wants to write a clean first draft that needs no major edits, but I’ve come to realize that writing those flashbacks is part of my drafting process. I write them to figure out—for myself—what happened to those characters in the past. As the author, I need to know all of those details, even if my reader doesn’t.
Sure, I could write them in a separate document, but if I’m in a flow state, I’m not going to interrupt it to decide whether or not this flashback belongs. That’s what editing’s for! (And there’s no way my first draft is going to be perfect anyway.)
Don’t be afraid to write a flashback into a first draft. Just don’t forget to reexamine it when you edit.