posted
I was reading a new Lost novel at Barnes and Noble, and was disgusted with nearly everything about it, but especially with how the flashbacks were handled. It was literally painful to read every time the next flashback cropped up. And yet, the flashbacks are one of the best things about the TV show.
I'm convinced that the device can be handled well in the written form, but I don't know what stories flashbacks succeeded in. Can someone give some examples? I ask because I'm reworking a story that's going to be dependent on flashbacks, and I don't want to wreck it like the [i]Lost[i] book was.
posted
Hmmm. Well, although it's one of my favorite books, I don't know that I can recommend it as a model for the flashback pattern. But a huge chunk of Heinlein's Starship Troopers takes place in flashback. Imitate that one at your own risk, though. A good rule of thumb is that if you're relying heavily on flashbacks (especially if you need one up at the start of the story) then you've started the story in the wrong place.
Posts: 491 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
Flashbacks are a problem for me. I was always taught 'in medias res' ... So I try to start my stories at some interesting point, and then I'm flashing back, and I'm flashing forward, and it's just all very unorganized.
I like what I do, but every crit I get -- they always mention it.
Now I have to figure out how to solve this problem, and it might be at the sacrifice of the style I've been developing for years.
So do yourself a favor and avoid flashbacks, if you can. Like drugs, they can lead you down a dangerous path.
posted
Well, these aren't particularly good examples, but if you want to see published work that uses flashbacks a lot, try THE DAVINCI CODE. Also, Stephen King uses flashbacks quite often in his stories.
Posts: 603 | Registered: Jul 2005
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If the flashback happens to a character, then you can do it easily. Just describe the mental process of the character having the flashback.
This roughly corresponds to the close up shot we get of a character having a flashback in film where the director relies on the actor's facial expression to indicate the emotional/reactive mode (surprise/recognition/confusion/etc.) that is invoking the flashback (if it's Dave Letterman, he'll say "Oh yeah" and rub his chin).
A good flashback always clearly signals both which character is having the flashback and the reason for the flashback. As long as you do that, and the reasons for the character to have a flashback are believable (as well as it being believable that the character in question could remember that information), flashbacks are fine.
But where you don't establish who is having the flashback and why, it can often be unclear that the scene is even a flashback. Nothing is more confusing than that.
posted
As I understand it, flashbacks serve one purpose only. They give the reader information in order to understand the decision being made somewhere near by, by a character. One of the best flashbacks that comes to my mind is the one in Carl Hiaasen's novel, SICK PUPPY. Look on pages 15 to 18. It runs an entire section (scenebreak to scenebreak) in the novel and ends with the realtime thought of the pov, "If only they could see me now, Twilly thought. Preparing for a hijack."
Without the flashback the reader would not understand why Twilly is going to do what he's going to do.
The flashback is an entire scene set in the past with no ties, no segue into the story realtime.
In my opinion, this was a classic flashback. Needed. Not intrusive. Quite entertaining.
posted
The flashback is a device which movies and television can use far more easily and with better effect than in writing.
However, too many writers nowadays write with visual media like movies and television in mind moreso than the written word. We end up with a lot of crappy writers with good ideas and bad presentation.
Far too often we see styles that work in video seeping into the written word and failing.
posted
I guess I am not sure whether the flashback is simply a narrative device or supposedly an actual mental behavior. I am struggling with this a lot in my WIP which is autobiographical fiction.
Seems like in fiction they often try to establish that the character is literally flashing back, the phrase "he could still smell the weight of her perfume" or something like that suggests itself. Maybe I'm imagining fiction that is worse than really exists. As opposed to what it seems Dostoevsky did, which is have someone who is on their deathbed/drunk but improbably lucid tell someone a story about someone they met once. Or have someone tell a story someone told them when on their deathbed. That works too.
posted
I have a hard time with the flashbacks because I'm mostly writing about vampires. When they sleep they dream and they can also bring up a memory as a warning to another vampire. I have, but then scrapped it, started with a memory of a violent act, and then the dialogue at the end of it, having the vampire awaken with the words playing over and over in his head.
Posts: 341 | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
There seems to be a lot of "use flashbacks as a last resort if you can't get the information out any other way" sentiment.
If you want to see flashbacks used extremely well and used extensively, as in the entire main plot is told through flashbacks, check out anything by Kazuo Ighiguro.
posted
Ahhh...but what is a flashback? Are we referring to the act of remembering something vividly, but not necessarily as an eclipse of normal reality? Think of the difference between the two as telling a story while you are recalling it (very Homeric, that) and enduring a nightmare that 'tricks' your mind into believing it is real.
I've always considered the flashback to be more of a literal 'reliving' of a previous significant and/or traumatic event, not a simple recollection (however realistically nostalgic) of a grandfather sitting on a front porch in summer...remarking on the superiority of lemonade in the "old days" to the "store-bought foot powder" his grandkids enjoy.
If you want a character to recall something, but not necessarily in a common 'flashback form,' you can simply have them tell a story within your story (refer to Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy...it uses this method quite well, and so fluidly that you barely notice the odd narrative format). I'm not saying this is easy, but it's not impossible either, and much less cliché.
Just my two bits.
*Post-script Edit: One more thing...I consider flashbacks in the form of long italicized passages to be absolutely maddening. I try to steer clear of that particular format.
Inkwell ------------------ "The difference between a writer and someone who says they want to write is merely the width of a postage stamp." -Anonymous
[This message has been edited by Inkwell (edited January 31, 2006).]
posted
What's up with this limited view of how flashbacks can be used? Don't get me wrong, I don't like many uses of flashback in modern literature and TV/movie. I hated Pulp Fiction, a very popular recent movie, because the flashbacks confused me and I found I didn't care enough to keep up with the chronology.
And in my explanation of disgust lies the answer -- flashbacks work when the reader cares. This may also be why some people don't mind some flashbacks and others do...not everyone cares about the same things.
There are some general rules of thumb to capture the widest audience. Starting with a flashback, for example, is usually a bad idea. Basically, if we don't have an opportunity to care what is happening NOW then why should we care what happened THEN? This is why many people, including myself, say that if you have to start with a flashback you have probably started in the wrong place.
When we are confused, we don't tend to care. Flashbacks within flashbacks, no clues as to their beginning and end, constant jumping around in time...all these cause confusion.
I enoy flashbacks when one of two things is true: 1. Simplicity. We get a clear, one time look into the past of a character, usually triggered by a specific and relevant action. 2. Symmetry. A number of flashbacks in a clear, precise order. Stephen King's IT is an example...we have scenes from the characters as adults, and then as kids, and then as adults...it keeps going back and forth in a clear and interesting pattern as we gradually gather the whole story, past and present.
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