Whichever strategy you use, the following basic guidelines will help to make your backstory unobtrusive: Serves only to irritate readers, who want to get back to the forwardįrankenstein and Sophie's Choice are examples of frame stories told in flashback. Of a prologue and an epilogue, with the entire story told in flashbackīeginning writers often use this approach in scenes, and it usually Frames: this is the "story within a story," and it often makes use.Dreams: dreams can feel contrived, so use them carefully and seldom.Letter or journal to impart historical information to the reader. Letters or Journals: A character might either write or read a.Short italicized passages that dramatize the past-occasionally this isįor example, a son contemplating his father's death might address hisįather in short passages that separate scenes: You met mother on a scree ridge high on Mt. Italicized Inserts: You might also structure the story to include.Or create a separate section for the past. Might write long scenes and alternate chapters in the past or present, When you have a significant amount of material that
FLASHBACK EXAMPLES THAT ARE SHORT FULL
Full scenes: these are extended recollections that utilize bothĪction and dialogue.Narrative-not a big information dump all at once. Short as possible often only a sentence or two is enough. This adds texture to the story, provided you keep these pieces as Narrative as they become relevant to the character's motivation. My view), for using backstory in fiction is to weave bits and pieces of Recollection: The most common technique (and most effective, in.With this in mind, ask yourself: Why is this historical momentĬrucial to the story? What is most important about this passage? How can However, information "told" to the reader has The temptation is to use exposition to quicklyīring readers up to speed on important events from the past, with the Structured to include the backstory as passages between present day To warrant its own narrative arc, in which case it can be included as a The exception to this is when the backstory is extensive enough History, it is seldom a good idea to include more than a little of that Movement has little place in the narrative, and while it is very useful In fiction, a flashback that does not add context to the forward A longer scene would includeĭialogue, but it is best to keep the recollections as short as possible. The historical recollection allows readers to The colour of the walls or the number of people in the room is not It was time, he thought now, to get past all that.Ī passage like this aims to put readers at the bedside along with theĬharacter, and it contains emotional facts, rather than irrelevant Her hand, still loose in his, atop the crisp, white sheet. Went still and all the lines on her face smoothed away, and then he laid Even when her breathing stopped, the pulse beat on for a second or Joe watched a vein below her ear pulse like the heart of a frightenedīird. Her eyes clamped shut in a last grimace, and each inhalation came Just a moment before the muscles of her face contracted, as if in pain. Slight pressure, almost indiscernible, he watched her face. Offered no resistance when he squeezed them. Her long fingers had felt like bones bundled in thin silk, and He had spent the entire month of July in hospital, at his mother'sīedside. Interest, so dramatizing the interruption decreases that risk. Flashback ExamplesĪny time you interrupt the forward moving story, you risk losing reader The sentence he thought back to that horrible summer when he sat beside his mother's bed as she witheredĪway from cancer is not yet a proper flashback. That their purpose is to dramatize the past, not summarize it. The terms backstory and flashback come from film terminology, and knowing this should be a reminder Quick trip back in time to when he sat at the bedside of his dying mother will increase reader understanding and empathy.īackstory must be shown, however, not told. If the main character won't enter a hospital, for example, a Writers use flashback to tell the backstory and show character motivation. To cover in a particular narrative-and anything that happens before What is a Flashback?Įach story has a time frame-the amount of time the author has decided Handled improperly, backstory stalls theįorward-moving narrative altogether, and yet skillful use of this toolĪdds historical and emotional context and controls pacing.
It is better to choose a point of entry into a story and write forwardįrom there. Their fiction because they tend to rely on backstory too heavily early Most of the time, I advise beginning writers to avoid using flashback in
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