What do you think about flashbacks in short stories? I've heard the common consensus is to make them as short as possible, like three lines to a single paragraph as to avoid jumping out of the action for too long.
Thing is, I've got a 12 pager I want to put up for critique, and pages 2 and 3 are a single flashback/dream sequence. I like it. But I don't know if it works, or if it's too distracting at that length. Of course I could always just throw it up and see what people think, but I feel like I'm SUPPOSED to pare it down to a single paragraph. But when was the last time I did something I was supposed to do? (Case in point: I'm at work right now, not working.)
Generally, flash backs and dream sequences interrupt the narrative flow and are cliche. So, "common wisdom" is to make them short if you have to do it. The question is, do you have to do it.
If 1/6 to 1/4 of your story is flashback/dream, you might not have started in the right place. That's a whole lot of time to spend on the past or an "unreal" event. But, like everything else, it's hard to say in abstract. It might be perfect for your story.
There are "rules". There are times and reasons to break them, IF you are doing it intentionally and willing to pay the price.
posted
There's no rule that says you can and can't have flashbacks in a short story, nor what length they have to be. Do what makes the story flow and work. However, if you're flashbacking on pages 2 and 3, that CAN be a sign that you're starting the story in the wrong place (it may mean you've tried to hook someone with a brief teaser, and then actually go to the story of how they got there - e.g. "The car came hurtling round the bend straight towards me! There was nothing I could do to get out of the way! As I stared in open-mouthed horror, I remembered how that morning, I'd got up as usual, and made a cup of coffee before setting out to work...").
As for dream sequences... I'm leery of them in general, though it's more in film than writing that they are used as a cheap shock technique. They're an easy way to do foreshadowing, but they can easily feel as if they come from the author, not frmo the context and characters.
posted
I currently have a story in the WotF group that is chock full of flashbacks ranging in length from half a page to a couple pages. It has gotten very good response.
When it comes to rules in writing they are flexible. The reason we learn the rules is so we know when and why we are breaking them.
posted
Consider the flashback in the movie IRONMAN. That wasn't the first movie where I've seen that done ("36 hours earlier"), and I didn't like it. All through that flashback, I kept wanting to get back to where the beginning of the movie had left off.
And, yes, I realize it was important back story, but I think it would have worked better if it had started "36 hours earlier" and continued in chronological order.
posted
I am currently writing a story (that for fear of ruining the ending I won't reveal too much about) where probably half of it will be flashbacks but I am treating it almost like a different timeline. I don't think that it would work if the past was put before the present because it is the contrast between my character in the present and my character in the past that, in my opinion, makes the story interesting, the first flashback is basically a game of hide and seek, not engaging unless you know that two of the character who seem very much in love now, in the future will be in a very unhappy marriage.
The best example I have found of doing something like this (though the two timelines were seperated by a few generations) was Holes, where in the past timeline the most interesting thing is that what is now a desert prison used to be a cheery lakeside town. You want to know how this transformation occurred, but if you had it in chronological order you would just have a far too cheery story about a school teacher living by a lake and people would stop reading because the present is where the story needs to start, but the past is a very important story to tell.
posted
Flashbacks have their place---after all, "Casablanca" wouldn't have made any sense at all if they had left out the lengthy flashback to Bogie and Bergman's Paris days, would it?---but two pages in a twelve-page story does seem a little long.
Take it out, and see if the story works without it...if not, see how much you can cut out of it and still make it work.
posted
Thanks for the feedback everybody; the flashback jumps about 30-40 years into the past, but I think I'm gonna cut it, which is a shame because I love the prose I (supposedly) wrote. But if it's for the good of the story, I must. Here, here! A pirate's life for me.
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posted
tmoraca, cut it, but don't delete it. You may find a use for that wonderful prose in some other story, or you may want to tell develop that flashback into its own story.
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