Flashback

You're writing a scene, and suddenly you go back in time to another scene: that's flashback. It is a useful tool for some writers, but it's a dreadful weapon of narrative destruction when wielded by those who don't know how to make it work.

Because flashback is in the past it's like going backwards, whereas stories should be all about moving forwards. If the story starts with the narrator talking about how they once drove over a cliff, we know they survived it otherwise how would they be there talking about how they once drove over a cliff? So the tension is lost, unless the flashback is adding something we couldn't know from the present narrative. In other words:

What works is when the flashback scene illuminates something in the present. We gain information from the flashback scene that we couldn't get in any other way and it moves the present day story on.

What doesn't work is when the flashback scene is just explaining. The scene where you explain why your character is in a bad mood. The scene where you explain why your character has fond memories of their grandmother.

The non-working flashback scenes often work like this....

a) The character is staring at themselves in a mirror one morning. They think back to last night - cue flashback with them walking into a bar the night before. The flashback happens - the night doesn't go well. The scene changes back to the present. The character stares at themselves in the mirror. The End.

b) The character is on a train. They think about their grandmother. Their eyes close - cue flashback. They are a child on a beach with their grandmother. They have a nice time. The flashback ends and the character wakes up in the present. They arrive at the station. The End.

These flashbacks (and I have seen many variations of them) don't work because nothing in the flashback illuminates stuff that's happening in the present.

What would have worked better is:

a) Start the story with walking into the bar. Whatever happens in the bar then happens in the story present. It happens. The End. This is putting the story into the narrative present.

b) The character arrives at the station and is met by their grandmother. As they talk, the character realises that grandma seems smaller, more frail than how she was on the beach all those years ago. They give grandmother a hug - they still love her. The End. This is putting the flashback into backstory, ie the information is woven into the narrative present.

Some of my favourite writers use flashback brilliantly. But lots of beginner writers don't, so be careful. Make sure that if you must have flashback it really is adding something to the story that couldn't be added in any other way.

When You Know the Rules, Feel Free to Break Them

One Day by David Nicholls is a great example of rule breaking.  Two viewpoints throughout, swapping between paragraphs, sometimes her, sometimes him, back and forwards.  It's against all the rules and shouldn't work - but it does.  The book I read before - Family Album by Penelope Lively - did just the same, skipping between all the characters in the large family.

But but but, you splutter.  The Rule says No headhopping!  The Rule says Stay in one character's viewpoint in each section.  These books break the rules.

Yup.  The Rules are there, and writers break them all the time.  But that doesn't make the rules less valid.  You need to understand the reasoning behind the rules, and then you can merrily break them.  

The rules are there to make life easier for the reader.  That's all.  Readers often find headhopping (ie switching from one character's viewpoint to another within a scene) confusing or distancing.  Confused or distanced readers stop reading. That's why it's inadvisable.  

However, if you set up a multi viewpoint scenario from the beginning (as both Lively and Nicholls do) then the reader is prepared.  For example, the opening page of Family Album alternates viewpoint from paragraph to paragraph: ABABA.  Once the reader has realised this they can follow the story.   

The trouble comes if you are starting out as a writer.  The chances are you don't understand why the rule is there.  I've come across many new writers who can't see that they're headhopping,  They're confused, the writing is confused, the reader is confused. 

Exactly the same is true for flashback.  Many new writers don't realise they're doing it, many don't understand why the rule is there.  They're confused, the writing is confused, the reader is confused.  Plus, it often slows down the action, doesn't add new information, goes over old ground. 

Learn how and why the rules work, and then, when you know what you're doing and the reader isn't getting confused, you can do what you like. Headhop at will.  Flashback away.  Readers don't read with a checklist beside them, but they want a smooth journey through your story. If they have to fumble around to check on who is speaking or where exactly the characters are in time then they'll stop reading.  

Serve the reader. That's the ultimate rule.  

PS Mind you, there is another reason why I advise unpublished writers to follow the rules.  Nicholls and Lively are both established writers.  They're not sending off their first 50 pages and trying to find an agent, or sending short stories out to competitions or magazines. You probably are. It's a very competitive world (in case you haven't noticed). You don't want to give anyone reasons for rejecting your story and, like it or not, headhopping or misplaced flashback could easily be a reason.  

Anyone in St Ives for the September Festival?  I'm giving a talk on Friday 23rd September at 11.00 am.  Go to the website for more info.

Flashback and Backstory 1

Flashback and backstory are often confused but they are two different things. Flashback is this:

In the morning Dolores stared at herself in the mirror. Last night it had all been so different. She'd walked into the bar and seen Emilio glowering at a table in the corner, so she'd gone over to him.

'Hello, Emilio,' she'd said.

Emilio looked up. 'Dolores! What are you doing here?'

'I came in looking for Juan - have you seen him?'

'No. Have you seen Conchita?'

'Not since this morning.' Dolores licked her lips. 'How about buying me a drink?'

etc etc etc until

Dolores shook her head. Thinking about last night wouldn't make any difference. She began to slowly, sadly peel her false eyelashes off.

And this is Backstory:

In the morning Dolores stared at herself in the mirror. Last night it had all been so different, so different from West Whimpering, the place she'd grown up in. She lived there for her earliest years. West Whimpering was a sleepy little town, and the inhabitants liked it that way, but Dolores had always yearned for something better. She finally left to go to the University of Watereddown to read History, but there she'd met Alberto and ended up in this one horse town. It was just like West Whimpering, but with rancheros, she thought, peeling off her false eyelashes.

Both have their place, which is often the dustbin in my opinion. At which point, if I'm teaching this in class, some students look aghast and clutch their manuscripts to their chest, fretting at the thought of ditching most of their work.

So, why don't I like them?

Flashback stops the action. If you look at the example above, what is Dolores actually DOING while she's having this long thought about the night before? Staring at herself in the mirror. It's hardly the most dramatic writing. But but but, the student stutters, there's lots of action in the bar with Emilio. Yes - but it's all in her head. What is actually going on in the narrative present? Nothing! Nada! Niente! Zilch!

Other negatives about flashback include confusing the reader as to where they are in both time (this morning or last night?) or location (the mirror or the bar?), and confused readers become non-readers in a surprisingly short space of time. Also, by definition, the action contained within the flashback has already happened and is now over. This makes it intrinsically less interesting, like listening to a friend's story about the dream they had last night. What is interesting is what is happening in the present story ie what is happening now.

But but but, the student stutters again. What about XYZ who does flashback brilliantly? Which may well be true. There are writers who handle flashback well. But is the student XYZ? Probably not. Most students use flashback as a means of writing themselves into the story. They have their character sitting on a plane, train, in front of a mirror and remembering back to the action, and it's just boring.

The simple solution is to start with the action. Start with Dolores walking into the bar. If you want to flag up that things are going to go wrong for Dolores, why not begin:

It all seemed so promising when she walked into the bar and saw Emilio sitting there.

Or:

This is going to be a great night, Dolores thought as she walked into the bar and spotted Emilio.

This is getting to be a long post. So, having finished off Flashback, I'll tackle Backstory tomorrow.

Why I Don't Like Flashback

Classic student opening to a short story or novel: The first paragraph starts...Emma applied another coat of mascara and stared at her reflection in the mirror... And the second paragraph starts...It had all started last night when Emma had walked into the bar and seen Joe. 

Variations would have the character shaving, drinking coffee, looking at themselves in the mirror, settling down for a train journey while thinking about what happened last night.  It's a device to frame the story, a way of writing themselves into the situation.  What it does is lose the tension.  We, as readers start here, and then we're whisked there. But 'there' has already happened.  We know that Emma makes it home in one piece because that's where we started.  The writer set a bench mark for the narrative present, so anything else is flashback.  

As well as losing narrative tension, we have a lot of clumsy grammar - she had had, there had been etc. Plus, the action of applying mascara/shaving/drinking coffee is inherently neutral - it's like throat clearing.  Nobody's interested in throat clearing, we want to read the action.  And the action happened last night, which makes it about as interesting as hearing about someone else's dream. 

There are writers who do flashback very well, but there is always a purpose to it.  Clues are revealed to the reader which keeps their interest level high.  But generally, wouldn't it have been much better to start:  Emma walked into the bar and the first thing she saw was Joe.  

PS Can't find my glasses this morning - apologies for any grammar/spelling mistakes/infelicities etc, but it's all a bit blurred.

The Curse of Flashback

In my Christmas stocking was a copy of Gemma Bovary by Posy Simmonds.  Now, I love her work and Literary Life never fails to make me laugh, so I had high hopes as I settled down to read.  Oh dear.  Practically the first thing I learned was that Gemma B was dead, and the story is told through extracts from her diary as read by nosy neighbour Joubert.  In other words - it's flashback!

But it was also Posy Simmonds so, initial disappointment aside, I read on.  And of course it's well written and beautifully illustrated, but I couldn't get into the story.  It was hard to invest in a character I knew was going to die, a bit like being introduced to someone at a party who then tells you they're moving to the other side of the country next week.  And there wasn't enough of a mystery about her demise to keep me intrigued.

In The Secret History by Donna Tartt we know from the start that one of the friends is going to die, killed by another but the novel shifts into the narrative present and the mystery of who dunnit and why sustains the story.  Sadly, this doesn't happen in Gemma Bovary which is always framed by Joubert's backwards looking narrative. I read to the end feeling slightly disappointed throughout.

I'm not saying you should never use flashback but you have to work so much harder as a writer to engage the reader, even if you're as brilliantly talented as Posy Simmonds undoubtedly is. Most of the time a straightforward narrative will work just as well so why make life difficult for yourself?

Flashback - Work of the Devil

I am on a one-woman campaign to eliminate flashback from writing. I don't understand the when it usually makes writing soggy and dull. Don't do it! Writing is partly about controlling pace. Action and dialogue speed it up, reflection and description slow it down. Flashback stops the novel dead in its tracks, like forcing a speeding car into reverse. Why? Because it's already happened. When you read you want to know what's going to happen next. With a flashback you know. Think how many stories have an underlying Will they, won't they? premise. If you use flashback, you've lost it.

I recently workshopped a student piece. It opened with a scene of the main character on her way somewhere, then went into flashback for the rest of the chapter going over the previous 24 hours. It was well written, but the tension was lost - we already knew the character was going to get in the car and head off for her destination, because the writer had said so at the beginning. It's like telling the punchline before you do the rest of the joke. It doesn't work.

Worse are those flashbacks where the character settles down to have a jolly good reminiscence like some great-uncle at Christmas beginning with 'I remember those lovely holidays we used to have at Gran's...' For some reason, they're often inspired by train journeys and as the character drops off into a dream of times past, so do we.

Of course there are exceptions. Donna Tartt's The Secret History gains a lot of tension because we know from the start that a main character is going to be murdered by one of the others. But we don't know who murders whom until the end. Anita Shreeve's The Pilot's Wife uses flashback to unravel the story, but each flashback section advances the plot with information the reader didn't know until that moment. So flashback can work, but the chances are more likely that they're losing tension and pace. Don't do it!