Writing flashbacks that work (How to insert flashbacks)
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- Опубліковано 13 жов 2020
- Writing flashbacks that work is not as hard as you think! In this video I show you how you can insert flashbacks into your story in a way that makes them immersive and interesting for your readers.
The worst thing for a flashback to be is boring. If a reader sees a flashback as an unnecessary diversion from your story, they can feel frustrated.
However, if you can insert a flashback into your story with care, it can be an asset to your storytelling instead. It can deepen your story and your reader's investment in it.
There are two main ways I can think of to do this and I show you both of them in this video. Different stories will need different approaches to flashbacks, so be sure to pick the one that feels right to you.
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I had another flashback in one of my Stories, it was a very natural transition. The father of the protagonist moves into the room and sees a photograph on the wall, mentions a detail he hasn't noticed before, and then the protagonist remembers about a moment where that detail played a role years ago.
Sounds like a great use of a flashback to me. Ideal :)
I was trying to think if I've ever written a true flashback scene...and I don't think I have? At least nothing long and drawn out over multiple pages. I've definitely done little quick snippets of memories type of thing. These are really good ideas for how to seamlessly incorporate them, though!
Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows series is almost built on flashbacks for the six POV characters. Sounds like a mess, but she pulls it off brilliantly!
Sounds interesting! I like stuff that tells a story in a different way like that ☺️ this can work for those little flashback-ish short moments as well, that example I used is a butchered version of that, the flashback only lasts a couple of paragraphs ☺️ I keep hearing good things about Six of Crows...🤔😆
Writing my first novel, and it’s not so much flashbacks, but more so backstory. My story is a tragic romance and picks up in the first chapter when they first meet, but I have loads of backstory to tell that really helps to explain my characters, or shed knew light onto a situation playing out in the present. My story is told in present tense third person, but my backstory I tell as individual chapters in past tense first person and I write them as if each character telling their backstory is telling a friend a story, talking to a therapist, or thinking back on a memory. I also have a scene that I’m excited about where a character discovers her finances hidden love notes he wrote to his former lover when he thought he was dead, I like that I get to communicate a lot of feelings and emotions through this without ever having to go back into the past for it I get to just stay in the present.
Great advice! Btw your editing is getting better with every video!
Thanks mate ☺️ Always looking to get better!
Newbie to your channel, so going through your back catalogue of videos. Really like your approach and found a number of interesting insights - thanks mate.
As for flashbacks - done well, I agree these can be a really useful writing tool - though I think the same about prologues which also get a lot of hate.
Thanks very much and welcome!
That’s a good point, prologues do seem to be largely criticised, but surely if they weren’t effective at all they wouldn’t be used at all?
There has to be valid benefits to them as well as the apparent drawbacks ☺️
Thank you, this will really help my students.
Your content is so good! I am so happy youtube found you for me when I was nit even looking!
Me too! ☺️ Glad to have you here.
This was suuuuper helpful
I believe flashbacks can really strengthen stories too. Mybig bugbear is often how people transition back into the present, i.e. xyz. Miriam found herself in the present again...
This us a bit too obvious, but I think the transitions on both sides are really important.
An easy win is present tense/past tense. You still need some signposting, but not as much.
Transitions are so hard, they're almost always obvious in one way or the other becasue they kind of have to be I suppose. I'm always worried about being 'obvious' and sometimes it pushes me the wrong way and I end up vague!
I think flashbacks and moving between them are one of those parts of a story where the veil between the story and the writer is at it's thinnest, and we're most at risk of being spotted by eagle eyed readers :)
@@KierenWestwoodWriting Most definitely! I think the transitions are one of the hardest things to get right.
Thank you, your advice was very helpful!
I’m glad! Thanks for watching ☺️
This is fanatic advice! I have used the tactic where something in the present triggers the flashback to create the connection. I love your example of the pocket watch. Smells are powerful for nostalgia, so I've used them in my writing as well. I have a WIP where the timeline jumps back and forth. I'll have to watch this video again when I start the dating phase.
I'd love to collaborate with you on a fun livestream series I'm going to start. I'll message you on Facebook to see if you're interested.
Ooh yeah smells are a good one for nostalgia, that olfactory kick ☺️ there’s nothing like it.
@@KammiLutz I’ll log in and check today, thanks! ☺️
@@KierenWestwoodWriting haha. Yeah, that's what I hear. Of course this never happens to me. 🤥
I am writing a screenplay about a troubled woman. The flashbacks are paramount in building the mysterious plot as to why she is the way she is and to create the twist ending. Sort of like Behind Her Eyes. (Although I wrote my based novel a decade ago lol but I digress). Anywho, my question is I have one seen where it is necessary to do an inception sequence. It's needed and really the only way it will fit without bloating the screenplay any further. Other than the movie inception has this been accepted by the industry in any other movies
I’m saving my main flashback until the end to, in retrospect, explain behavior of the character after the fact.
Ah cool, so it'd be a revelation and the reader could then look back and see all the clues that they missed! Makes for a very re-readable story I think 🙂
Really helpful 😄✊
Glad it helped!
So I'm writing a fighting scene and the chapter ended with the character being trapped in a water prism, unconscious and struggling to breathe. In the series for now I want to foreshadow that in order to fully reach the peak of one's power, they must fully understand and grasp their most innate emotion (I have yet to reveal this as I intend to do it later). I'm planning to start the next chapter with a key flashback to his childhood and build it up to the point where he fully comprehends his feelings of determination, and then transition back into the main fight. I also want to intertwine the past and present by having the character as a 10 year old wake up from a bad dream in the flashback (supposedly hinting he was having a dream of the fight scene in the future and dying), I kind of want to play with that déjà vu, fate/destiny-esque thing). What are your thoughts?
Thanks for sharing a part of your story! Flashbacks are one of those really divisive elements of writing, some people hate them (I don't understand why) so it's worth just taking a moment to understand you'll lose those people if you use them.
Once that's done, you realise flashbacks can be fun to write, useful for characterisation, mystery, plot, a load of stuff.
The key point though (in my opinion, and it's just that) is that flashbacks should be relevant and timely to your story. I'm using them in my current novel, to shed light on what just happened or what is about to happen in my story.
Sounds to me like you're doing the exact same thing. There's a reason your moving to a flashback, and it's because it expands the story, it widens the reader's understanding and it also builds a bit of tension.
Sounds like you're using it exactly right to me. Good luck with it and have fun!
I am not going to say you should never use flashbacks. I will say you can never go wrong by *not* using them.
Eh I disagree
Haha fair enough! 😂 I can see where you’re coming from for sure.
@@KierenWestwoodWriting To be certain, if you are going to use them, your advice is spot on. And I don't have an issue with framing devices, so long as they add something thematically... The Princess Bride, for example, or 1001 Nights. I just object to "cinematic" flashbacks in fiction, particularly when they're used out of laziness, for the sake of exposition or to fix pacing.
@@nehukybis I totally get what you’re saying, I think that adding something should be the aim with whatever you’re putting into your story ☺️ Totally agree on laziness or using stuff like that to plug holes in the story.
@@KierenWestwoodWriting Part of my prejudice against flashbacks comes from how much I object to the trend of making writing more like film or TV. Different media, different strengths and weaknesses.
I think POV makes a big difference too. My last novel was written entirely in 1st present. So every time the POV character talks about the past, it's already a flashback, basically. Just more natural. If I had slipped into present when he was talking about events that happened in the past I think it would have just been confusing.
LOST 😜 thanks for the tips!
‘Previously on Lost’ 😂
Excellent. I understand how to use trigger to go to the past. But how do we transition back to the present? I'll watch again. Maybe i missed something. (No doubt, i did)
Personally I like the Indiana Jones version!!
Me too! ☺️
The Time Traveler's Wife is the ultimate time-jumping novel. Highly recommend if you're trying to learn about flashbacks!
I've somehow not read it yet, I'll add it to my list, thank you 🙂
@@KierenWestwoodWriting It's pretty wild. I think you'll like it. It likens time travelling to a seizure: his body has a natural reaction to stress, and that is to launch him naked through moments in his own life. Turns out to be a great commentary on substance abuse, and why it happens to people who can't cope with their painful realities.
Sounds like my kind of thing for sure!
It’s hard for me specifically because how would I write the flashback triggered during dialogue between two characters. For example if character A wants to find where character B hid the body and I want to explain in through the eyes of character B, 12 hours before. How would I transition that through dialogue. Any examples?
How do we end a flashback scene?
I'm writing a fantasy novel and I'm going to use flashbacks to develop the villain a little bit, to add substance to his world views and more general information about the character, I have no problem making it seperate I always make it their own chapters so its clear but I feel like if I do it too much the reader could lose interest if half of the story is flashbacks.
I can understand that feeling for sure. It may bother some readers, but others may just see it like two separate mysteries unravelling at the same time, that's how I'd see it. It takes skill to write what is almost parallel stories in a way, and I personally really enjoy that when I'm reading.
For what it's worth, I'd say if you can keep your own interest, you'll keep your reader's 😊
So if I’m writing something where I want to first chapter to be a flash back how would I do that, or more importantly how would I start it. Should I do a modern event that leads into a memory, or an interrogation?
Hi, I'm not a writer just a reader Here's my thought: You can start a story with a flashback but then you'll have to find a way to connect that scene with a present (like the same character in both scenes or the same place). Just don't start with anything totally disconnected to the story or something that will play out later on and you'll be fine.
Is the single quotation mark, followed by the double quotation marks, something distinctively British?
I don't think so. I think it's more of a 'I've been editing this video for two hours and have lost the ability to spot errors' thing.
What about using italics?
Absolutely! That's a great way to do it as well I think.
Am having hard time understanding the second one