Movies, TV shows, comic books, we see flashbacks everywhere... even in prose. However, it is often a far less useful device in text than it is in a visual medium. Which is why I'd recommend that most writers really consider just not using it whenever possible.
 |
| It was six years ago to the day... |
Before we get into it this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron!
Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!
The Right Tool For The Right Job
When we see a flashback in a visual medium, there are signs that show us as the audience that what we're seeing happened previously in the character's life. There may be a musical sting, echoing words, and a change in camera angle or shooting style in film, for example. Not only that, but when we see our characters there are often distinct changes in their appearance (hairstyle, costume, lack of scars, obviously younger/played by a different actor entirely, etc.) that clue us in as to what we're seeing. Comic books use the same visual identifiers, but they'll often have a label indicating when and where the flashback is taking place so that the reader has full context for what they're looking at. Even stage plays use this device by changing costumes, set, character relationships, etc.
Prose... doesn't really do that. More importantly, though, flashbacks can often be the worst solution to an issue of getting information to your readers.
 |
| All right... let's crack open the archive! |
If you want to have a flashback in prose, you often have to put in a messy scene break of some kind so the reader knows what's happening. You need to re-contextualize everything, and provide some kind of bearing for your audience to understand what's happening, and what they're seeing. Even if you manage to execute it smoothly, it can often feel jarring because you stopped telling the story in mid-flow to deliver what is, in essence, an aside to the audience.
Can you do this? Of course you can, it's your story. But is a flashback the best way to clue your reader in to what happened in the past?
As an example, let's say you have a violent vigilante in custody after killing dozens of members of the gang responsible for shooting his brother. The audience has seen the character's hollow-eyed, dead stare, the scars along their hands, and felt the rage radiating off of them. We see them as they are now. Could you have a flashback where we see what they were like before all of this? Sure, we could, and if this was a movie or a TV show, we probably would. But the audience will still get the idea if we show the reaction of people who knew this character before. We could bring across how they used to be in dialogue, perhaps by having a separate scene where we talk with people who knew the vigilante back in the day. Soldiers who served alongside him if he has a military history, friends and neighbors if he was close with anyone, parents, an ex... anyone else who can paint that picture.
The biggest sin a flashback commits in prose is that it often doesn't feel organic. That isn't to say that you can't make them work, but that you should ask what other methods you have on-hand that might function just as well. Often the best reason to use a flashback is because you have a tight word count you need to maintain, and it's the most expeditious option for you. Perhaps most importantly, though, the flashback is used to reveal information you have no other way to bring up, and you have a character whose mind you can delve into in order to show the audience what they're remembering.
As an example, check out my short story Dead Man's Bluff, from my collection The Rejects.
Were there other ways to bring that information about the card sharp's past up? Absolutely. I could have had the two men swapping stories over cards. I could have steered the conversation to talking about mothers when Jim alluded to his own. I could have had him ask about Fawkes's voice, and have him launch into the tale. I could have outright had Fawkes accuse Ruby to his face, shocking him and the audience both. However, that brief trip down memory lane seemed to fit best with the slow burn of the scene, but also with the mystery of what's happening, and the slow reveal of the history of these two men.
Again, just to reiterate, flashbacks can work in prose. But too often we reach for them as our go-to solution for bringing up information about a character's past when there are alternatives that would feel more organic, and which wouldn't break the flow of the story we're telling. So before you hit the reverb and let us drift back to an earlier time, ask if there's a better way to convey the information you want the audience to have. Sometimes the hammer is the right tool for the job... but if it isn't, don't try to use it anyway because you're more familiar with it.
Lastly, if you enjoyed that story, follow my Daily Motion channel! I'm hoping to keep converting more of my stories into audio dramas, but I need all the listeners and views I can manage if I want to make that a viable project going forward.
Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!
That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!
And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list.
If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!
No comments:
Post a Comment