Flashbacks.

[Masronyx]

This is something I've had trouble with off and on over the years. Flashbacks. How do you use them? Do you use them to give the main character more depth and dimension? (Like why is he/she like this? flashback to an 'incident' in their childhood that scarred them forever)

Flashbacks can go off without a hitch if used in just the right way. I've seen it in published works. I have used them, but sometimes I over do it, like flashing back to a unnecessary detail in a character's life.

I'm curious as to how everyone else uses flashbacks.

 

[Steerpike]

I don't use them. I don't like reading them, and thus far haven't included them in any of my works. Not saying I'll never do it, but I'm not a fan of them in general.

 

[TWErvin2]

Flashbacks are a tricky thing. Often observation, dialogue and brief thoughts can get the necessary point across. Extended flashback scenes, as indicated, are difficult to pull off. In my first novel, I didn't use any. In my second novel, I used one. It's a sequel and flashes back to a scene/event in the first novel.

I think that writers sometimes don't trust the reader enough to 'get it' and employ overkill, such as a flashback to make sure the task is accomplished.

 

[Erica]

In the novel I'm writing one of the protagonists has magically dumped most of his past in order to escape it. Except the enemy he's trying to hide from is the one who ends up with it. So part of the story revolves around his regaining it piece by piece from his enemy. So flashbacks aren't really because the reader doesn't get it, but are a part of discovering who the main character really is and what he's done to end up in his current situation. Not sure how to do that without flashback type sequences. Aside from keeping them short and sweet, any ideas on how to integrate them in a way that's not likely to disrupt the flow of the story?

 

[JCFarnham]

As with all literary techniques a writer should never seek to dismiss flashbacks on a whim, or because of what they've heard in the past. and All techniques come with a certain degree of difficulty.

Flashbacks work, otherwise they wouldn't exist. The real trick is use them for the right reason. A flashback should NOT be used in place of good characterisation. A flashback should further the plot. If it doesn't do that then it is unnecessary and will almost certainly fall flat, distract the reader, or turn them against you as an author. And that first impression is important isn't it haha.

I don't tend to dismiss any method/technique/way of writing until I've tried it myself, anything dodgy can be fixed in editting, that's what it's there for.

 

[Steerpike]

Like most writers, I tend to write the sort of things that I like to read. Since I rarely like to read flashbacks, I don't employ them. I've come across a few that were very well done and successful, and in those cases after my initial disappointment in the author, all is forgiven. Far more often, in my experience, the flashbacks are dull and/or unnecessary, and I'll end up skimming them for the one or two bits of information that, as TWErvin suggests, could have been better relayed to the reader through dialogue, thoughts, observation, and the like.

Most flashbacks that I've come across that do not work seem to fail for one of two reasons: 1) The author used a flashback when unnecessary or to convey unimportant information; and 2) the flashback does not compensate for pulling the reader out of the action of the story; it is dull, slowed, poorly paced, or what have you.

In the first instance, the author simply appears to be wasting the reader's time. In the second case, the author may have a legitimate vehicle, in the form of a flashback, for what she is trying to do, but doesn't realize that by pulling the reader out of the action of the story she has raised the bar for her writing in the flashback. A flashback, by nature, will pull the reader out of the action of the ongoing story; to make it effective the author has to realize that and compensate for it by providing an important, and engaging flashback to the reader. Too many times flashbacks are boring, relate to trivial matters, or are poorly paced, in which case the author has not only pulled the reader from the main story but now compounded the problem by putting the reader to sleep.

 

[Masronyx]

I have read a novel where the author does a flash back in almost every other chapter. She titled the flashback title with a year, the following chapter titled "Now". The character was a 300 year old vampire. I think one reason why it worked was because of it being in first person. The flashback chapters were also dream sequences. I think it worked then because the flashbacks worked as part of the story. It showed how she came to be and how she interacted with the antagonist in the past, kind of comparing how she dealt with him in the present.

The times I have tried it were too long and drawn out. I became frustrated with it.

One story I'm working on involves an earthling on another planet. He was transported there as a baby raised in an incubator (there are thousands of others like him). I am questioning whether or not to use flash backs to when he was in the incubator prior to the moments when the ship he was on crashed, and in the chaotic moments afterwards when his adoptive mother found him. I am working on that he hears something through the computers of the incubators that he wasn't supposed to hear and it haunts his dreams.

I am also debating on whether the antagonist should have flashbacks also. The antagonist was the scientist who created the incubator ships that launched before the earth was destroyed. He is supposed to follow his "children" and be their demigod/leader. The debate is whether or not to use flashback or have him tell the story to the main character.

 

[Elder the Dwarf]

Hey don't mean to bother you guys but I wrote a flashback (actually two) for my WIP and put it in the showcase a while back. As I am not great at evaluating my work and you guys seem to be pretty opinionated on the subject, I thought it might be a good idea to let you guys have a look at it. Here's the link:

http://mythicscribes.com/forums/showcase/1510-duel-flashback-untitled-wip.html

Don't feel obligated to look at it or anything, I just thought you guys could give some more valuable feedback.