posted
In a story i'm writing, i'm considering adding a flashback. it would be to a scene that is right before the story starts. it isn't described very well (Third person limited with an unreliable POV or whatever) my question is A, should i even put it in if it isn't neccisary to the plot but would help to undertand the character, and B, if i do, what is a tactful way to do it? i'm not exactly comfortable with flashbacks yet, but i think it would really help out the story.
Posts: 27 | Registered: Jul 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Exactly how are you planning on handling the flashback? Are you going to spend a few paragraphs on this particular event, or do you want to make a little mini-story in the middle of things?
I ask because this will affect your reader reaction. Spending a few paragraphs talking about an event in a character's life is fine by me. It's an easy way to give information without the reader being taken out of the story's flow.
The mini-story approach is another animal, and I don't recommend it unless it's going to help the plot in some way. If you have a flashback just to give an experience, and nothing else, I'm going to wonder why I was thrown out of the story when you could have just given me the highlights. I wouldn't have missed anything that way.
If, however, the flashback does have a plot relevance, then I'll be fine with the mini-story. Say that the MC has a flashback where he was talking with his grandma, and they go on about all the different artifacts on her shelf, but then the foundation of their tete-a-tete goes towards where his life is headed. The focus will be on his life, because that's what he thinks about, but later, he realizes something important about the shelved artifacts, and it has tremendous value to the story's conclusion.
But you also need to prepare your reader for the flashback. Otherwise, they're going to wonder what the crap is going on. A great example about flashback usage is Holes by Louis Sachar. He has one every other chapter, and not only is the reader prepared for it, the story wouldn't make as much sense, or at least be a whole lot emptier.
posted
If you're popping into a flashback before the story starts, odds are you're not starting in the right place.
Posts: 1750 | Registered: Oct 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Dead_Poet, you ask should you put in a flashback if it isn't neccesary to the plot but would help to undertand the character. I think that a good plot should depend on the character, but omit the flashback if it doesn't serve to illustrate the character in a way that is integral to the plot.
For example: We don't need a flashback that shows that the character is prone to anger, if his anger, or lack thereof, isn't part of the story. But if the story has him angry and chasing after a cat with a big knife, then, by all means, include the flashback.
posted
what i was thinking about was having another character ask him about it, then he would "Remember" the event, but wouldn't tell about it (It's going to come up because of a wanted poster or tavern gossip, and he's not exactly proud of it). it's mentioned in a round-about way, and not clearly described on purpose to make the reader wonder about him. throughout the book, there will be more and more to reveal about the character's past, sort of a why does he do what he does thing. my main question is that, since i don't want to use the "This one time..." approach, what other approaches do you suggest?
Posts: 27 | Registered: Jul 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
How "right before" the story starts is this event?
If it's a long time between that event and the beginning of the story, and enough happens during that time to make a big difference, but what happens isn't all very interesting, then it makes sense.
For example, your story starts when a beautiful private investigator drives her car into a small-town repair shop to get her transmission fixed. The POV character is the old-beyond-his-years grease-monkey who's fixing her car's transmission, which turns out to have bullet holes in certain places. So the repairs end up taking a long time. Eventually the private investigator ends up asking him about his past, figuring (correctly) that he has one. He doesn't tell her, but he used to be a gang-banger out in where-ever, till he accidently gunned down his own brother during a confused shoot-out/drug-bust. That was 8 years ago, when he was fifteen. A lot has happened. He's found religion, but hasn't been baptized because the denomination (the eccentric pastor, really) he believes in requires full confession and doesn't withhold those confessions from the police. He's been wrestling with whether he should just find a more forgiving cleric, but in his heart he believes he really should pay for his crimes (many of which are more serious, at least in the eyes of the law, than the accidental shooting of his brother--he was trying to shoot a cop at the time, after all).
We don't need all 8 years, but they aren't the kind of thing you could skip over. We need the relationship to his pastor, and his sense of guilt. Once those are established, we're ready to hear his story, and it makes sense as a flashback.
But if he killed his brother a couple of months ago and has fled out here to hide, then there isn't enough time for very much that was both important and unintresting to intervene. So you need to just start the story before he kills his brother.
From what you've said, "it would be to a scene that is right before the story starts. it isn't described very well...it isn't neccisary to the plot but would help to undertand the character...not exactly comfortable with flashbacks yet," and all, I would think that you definitely don't want to do this as a flashback. It meets almost none of the criteria for a successful and interesting flashback.
When I do a "flashback", I always either do it in the form of a journal entry from the past, or a slice of dialogue between characters from the past. To acount for setting, I write at the top something along the lines of:
Saturday, August 27, 2048
Probably not a real date, but you get the idea. Lots of authors do this. If you need any more of a "flashback" than this, you're probably not starting the story in the right place.
posted
I understand wht you are saying, and i agree with you, but i can't really start with the event. the story starts with him escaping from his home town. he's running away because he just killed someone, and he's thinking about it and why he did it while he's running away. i don't want to start with that because its a very personal event, and if he were telling the story, he wouldn't talk about it (I know, i'm rambling, but that's the best way to describe my hesitancy to show the event) i didn't want to introduce him with a scene of a murder, but with a hint of a murder. The murder isn't important to the main plot, but it could be a sub-plot very easily.
besides that, i don't even know if what i want to do would be called a flashback, because it won't be in "real time" and it would be entirely in his thoughts...
posted
If it's just a hint at what happened (in this case a murder) then you could indeed do a classic (though in as few words as possible) prologue, IMO. What type of story is it? Milieu, Idea, Character or Event?
Edit: I just realised something. If it's at the very start of a story, it's not a flashback. Where would it be flashing back from? Not the story as is written at that point.
So simply write it as the first chapter (or 1 and a half chapters, or 2 chapters, etc depending on chapter size and the size of this part of the story). Then move onto the rest of the story (the main part I'm assuming?).
[This message has been edited by Mitch (edited August 21, 2006).]
Printer-friendly view of this topic
