Blogger: Mary Keeley
I was talking to a new novelist recently about where to begin her story and the best way to introduce important backstory information about her main characters. It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about anything craft related. Maybe now is a good time for a refresher on the best use of story flashbacks.
First rule: Put yourself in the reader’s shoes. Writing well is all about giving readers what they need when they need it.
Readers pick up your book because they’re interested in the current story. Since a flashback scene is “old news” and lacks imminent action or tension, there has to be a compelling reason for its interruption in the action of the current story or readers might lose interest. Here are two primary reasons to use a flashback:
- When the flashback scene provides a depth of insight into the main character’s motivation that enriches the current story and keeps readers caring about what happens next.
- When a flashback to an event that happened years before the story begins, which is vitally important for the reader to know in order to fully understand the tension or mysterious circumstances of the current story.
Done well, readers love a flashback because it satisfies their curiosity to 
understand more about a main character—perhaps even more than the character knows about herself at that point in the story—because it adds depth to the character’s struggle and desire to accomplish her goal. Readers engage with her and are compelled to keep reading to find out if she eventually grasps what she’s striving for.
Second rule: Use these guidelines to write an effective flashback.
- Write it as a complete scene. Some backstory might require several pages to give readers the full impact of its affect on the main character. Other times you might be able to get it across in a paragraph. Eliminate unnecessary details. They will be an annoyance to the reader, who wants to get back to the current story.
- Never use a flashback in the early chapters of your book, when you’re introducing the main characters to readers and building the action. Readers will be confused before they’ve had time to engage in the story.
- Where to insert a flashback is vitally important. Insert it after a powerful scene in your story, either a high point or a low point. It must directly impact the main character’s action in the current story.
- Enter into the flashback in one sentence, noting for readers the time and place in which it happened so they know where they’re being taken and won’t get frustrated and lose interest. End the flashback in one sentence. This alerts readers they are returning to the current story.
- Use past tense for the entire flashback when the current story is in present tense. Use past perfect tense for the flashback when the current story is in past tense.
- Wait to insert a flashback as long as possible, until the critical moment when readers absolutely must have the backstory information to understand the full impact of the scene in the current story. Leaving some mystery in the story keeps readers turning pages to get clues. You hook readers when they worry about the main characters. If readers have all the answers too early, there is nothing to keep them interested.
- Avoid using too many flashbacks. Something isn’t right if you need to use more than one or two in your full-length novel.
In what ways do you struggle with the effective use of flashbacks in your novel? Can you identify why you were annoyed by a flashback in a novel you read? Conversely, do your remember a flashback that caused your interest to soar in the current story?
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My book is non-fiction, a parable of our relationship with Christ. Verb tense was my bugaboo. I finally settled on present tense, but there are moments when I have to use past tense. Reading this post, I recognize that those past-tense sections are back story. Thank you, Mary, for these guidelines. Now to tweak those transition sentences . . .
You’re welcome, Shirlee. Have fun tweaking.
Using flashbacks is tricky. I love your suggestions for doing it effectively. In my first book, I used a flashback, but I think my timing for where it was placed in the story was off. Your suggestion of waiting until the reader absolutely must know that aspect of my character’s past makes a lot of sense.
*I’ve read a couple books by well-known authors where a flashback was placed very early in the story. I didn’t like it, but I kept reading because I like the author and the story had started to draw me in.
Jeanne, the wrong placement of a flashback often is the problem. I’m speculating that you didn’t like the flashback early in the story your read because it interrupted your getting acquainted with the characters and setting in the current story.
Interesting,Mary.
* Dealt with flashback in ‘Emerald Isle’. Necessary to plot, but went through couple version to finality. (And again, so many thanks to Carol Ashby for carrying book and author to SP finish line when I fell.)
* Hard to write; hard to have ‘character-then’ without knowings and experience of ‘character-now’.
* There is innocence lost with experience, good or bad. Subtle, like moon seen through high thin cirrus rather than clear night. Hard to catch at all; even harder not to coarsen and caricaturize.
* Can’t think any examples, sorry. Sorry also for typos. Bit hard to think, write, edit today.
* Hope everyone has a nice day.
And this “Emerald Isle” fan echoes the thank you to Carol.
Andrew, it’s always good to hear from you. Nobody cares about typos, we care about you! Take care!
It’s always good to see you here on the blog, Andrew. Exactly right. Until readers are acquainted with the characters and their specific struggles in the current story, a flashback won’t be all that useful for them.
Flashbacks are tricky. How do you feel about backstory woven in through conversation?
I’ve also toyed with having heroine look at a picture and remember what happened when it was taken. I only want to share enough to reveal the character’s motivation, but maybe I’m not giving it enough attention.
Jackie, weaving backstory into dialogue could work well in some situations and in some stories. It’s such an individual thing, depending on so many factors. The tricky thing in dialogue is that the backstory is perfectly woven organically. The danger is that the conversation will feel artificially plugged in to relay information. Commenting on an old picture could be a be an effective way to enter into a flashback,
I’ve not used a lot of flashback … just small pieces of reflection to help my story along. I appreciated Becky Wade’s use of flashback in A Love Like Ours … her MC has PTSD, and we are given insight to his past through his dreams/nightmares.
Shell, thanks for mentioning dreams and nightmares. They make a natural entrance to a flashback as long as they aren’t overused. When inserted at the right moment, flashbacks are useful in taking readers to a deeper level of the character’s emotional struggle, and that keeps readers engaged in the story.
Before I had a sweet clue, I used a tonne of flashbacks.
Now I use them as sparingly as possible, but only to tell a chunk of backstory in as little word count as possible. Or to drive a point deeper.
Right, Jennifer. Using them sparingly. That’s the key.
What tried to say earlier was clumsy, another effort here
* Characters mature as their lives are written chronologically. During writing the narrative, it may be best to write flashbacks first, to keep characters’ perspective fresher. One can go return to emphasize points later.
* Many thnaks to those who been praying. My spirit guide is Tigger; will bounce back.
One of my WIPs was criticized by a contest judge for including too much backstory. But it is a dual-time-period novel, and the part he/she called “backstory” was actually the earlier of the two time periods. Any tips for distinguishing clearly among flashback, backstory, and dual time period?
Jenny, that is exactly the issue with my WIP. Like the book “Holes” it has multiple story lines that all tie up in the end. I question if the transitions are too abrupt.
Jenny, giving the contest judge the benefit of the doubt, he or she has only a small portion of your novel. I suppose it might not have been clear that yours was a split story. Different characters in your two time periods is one way that distinguishes a split story from backstory about a character in a flashback. Segments in a split story usually go back and forth in complete chapters, unlike a flashback. If your contest entry had these components, the judge misjudged it, unfortunately.
I like flashbacks when I already know the history of the characters. The flashbacks let us know the details of the facts that we already know. I’m not fond of flashbacks as the way of letting us know what happened in the past. Unless the book is a mystery/suspense novel, I want to know everything upfront. Some people dislike italics for flashbacks, but I love them. If you don’t use italics, please change the font or something. I’ve read at least two books recently where I didn’t even realize I was reading a flashback until halfway through the section. I thought it was present day. The flashback scene, location, and characters were present at the same spot.
Sylvia, thanks for you input. I’m intrigued. What keeps you turning the pages when you already know everything upfront?
Thanks. This is something I’ve been trying to figure out.
You’re welcome, Janet.
Flashbacks used well…Cressida Cowell’s entire How to Train Your Dragon series is a flashback I suppose. It starts with a prologue by an elderly Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third saying “There were dragons when I was a boy…” and then you jump into the past when he was that boy. The reader is just dying to find out where the dragons went and how Hiccup becomes a hero even though everyone thinks he is just a scrawny weirdo. It works.
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