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Flashbacks

M

malena2006

New Member
First of all, G-d Bless whomever invented this site because it´s the answer to all my prayers. I am almost finishing my novel or at least the first volume (is a trilogy) and it´s been an agony. I am still crammed with doubts, but now that I found a place where some of those doubts might be clarified..I may tarry here forever!
First question, my story is told in two different times, present and flashbacks to a recent past. Originally it was divided in chapters, one in the present, one in the past and so on. Then I started to include flashbacks within a chapter taking place in present time. One of my novel´s thesis is that time is meaningless (it´s a supernatural romance), but perhaps this device could be confusing. What do you think? Should I rely on my original idea of having every other chapter in the past or could I combine times in the same chapter?
 
Unless you really know what you're doing, I'd steer clear of flashbacks. I find them annoying when I encounter them.
 
Thank you for answering

I have heard that flashbacks are disliked by most readers. That is not my experience, and most of my favorite novels include them, and yet I was warned to keep away from them. The only reason why I chose to disregard the advice was that my plot spans twelve years. If I were to write the events in a chronological order, I might end up with over five thousand pages. The way I did it enabled me to present the past in brief patches here and there, instead of filling page after page with descriptions of what happened to every character (I have about fifteen major characters).
I was thinking of a particular novel, William Styron´s Sophie’s Choice, where flashbacks are indispensable since not only they mislead characters about the nature of Sophie’s secret (her “choice”), but they confuse the reader as well. The truth is only revealed via a very telling flashback in the last chapter. I didn’t like that novel (I adored the film, but then flashbacks on screen are less baffling than on paper), but not because of the flashes to the past, but because language and characters were so dense. However, without those flashbacks the book would not have been as effective.
 
Your story sounds like a frame story--a story within a story. If I were you, I would read some other stories that use that format. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova are examples...I think The Notebook is, too. For now you can just write it like you are and edit it later; I don't reccommend abstaining from writing while you're reading. I hope you find my advice helpful.
I see that some people find flashbacks irritating. I think that's because only a few people can pull them off correctly. I am not one of those, so I find other methods to inform my readers of past events. If you can pull it off, all the power to you. I say go for it. Other's opinions are important, but most importantly, you are writing for you.
 
Thak you

ValkyrieRaven88 said:
Your story sounds like a frame story--a story within a story. If I were you, I would read some other stories that use that format. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova are examples...I think The Notebook is, too. For now you can just write it like you are and edit it later; I don't reccommend abstaining from writing while you're reading. I hope you find my advice helpful.
I see that some people find flashbacks irritating. I think that's because only a few people can pull them off correctly. I am not one of those, so I find other methods to inform my readers of past events. If you can pull it off, all the power to you. I say go for it. Other's opinions are important, but most importantly, you are writing for you.
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All advice is useful. Wuthering Heights like Brideshead Revisited is one great flashback. Going over my library, I see that all my novels (in English and Spanish) include flashbacks, but a friend told me that “twenty-first century novels do not use them anymore.” And yet I am reading Mary Doria Russell’s A Thread of Grace (Random House, 2005) and on page 27, I found the first flashback (there are other later on). I think there is a type of flashback that will always be in use, the one that introduces a character and his/her past.
My usage of flashback is much more complex, and I have characters constantly (and impromptu) remembering events of their recent past. I have chapters that have flashbacks within flashbacks.
I haven’t read The Historian yet. How does E. Kostova employs the flashback?
You and Doug represent two sides of the same question. On one hand, writing should be a private, spur-of-the-moment activity; on the other hand, you are not serious unless you are planning to get published. Who is right? There is a whole myriad of readers out there. Do you have to write for a specific target group? Isn’t that limiting your audience? But then writing genre is restricting. I have friends who feel that if you write with a particular reader in mind, your writing will be artificial.
The truth Doug Johnson is that I am writing for a reader and I am writing for myself, but I know I should be writing for a faceless nameless publisher.:p
 
I was surprised ....

Shade said:
Golly. Is that a whole new genre?
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to find out that supernatural romance is indeed a new and popular genre.Apparently is a subcategory of gothic and mystery romance. It covers science fiction , ghost, vampires, werewolves, time travel romances, and , of course, fantasy.
To be honest, I don’t know if my novel belongs in that genre, but if I have to put a label on it (and I will have to eventually) that is the only one that seems to apply since romance and the supernatural play an important part in my plot.
 
A Good Idea

Malena-I believe that flashbacks (FBs) are necessary in almost every fictional account. Unless it is an action-oriented, present time description, then it requires reflection. FB's are that reflection, and the reason that stories are made, and make good fiction.

I need to understand motivations, and FB's can be the rationale that characters use for activity in the "present" account. If we had to be eternally in the present, we would be reporters only, but even reporters have to refer to historical events to provide appropriate background for the reader. In many ways, we are editing when we summon these FB's.

Which brings up the whole question of time. Is it really there? Or is a mere convention that we have adopted to facilitate not being late for an appointment? I believe that our core beliefs about living determine the outcome of every aspect of our lives, and that for me, time does not exist.

I have also written a novel and yes, the editing is hell. I will continue, for I have fallen in love with the whole creative process. I have a supernatural theme in my work, too. I have just submitted, yesterday, sample chapters to Tor Books in NYC, and am really jazzed. Wish me luck!
 
My good wishes and prayers to you!

F.M.Thompson said:
Malena-I believe that flashbacks (FBs) are necessary in almost every fictional account. Unless it is an action-oriented, present time description, then it requires reflection. FB's are that reflection, and the reason that stories are made, and make good fiction.

I need to understand motivations, and FB's can be the rationale that characters use for activity in the "present" account. If we had to be eternally in the present, we would be reporters only, but even reporters have to refer to historical events to provide appropriate background for the reader. In many ways, we are editing when we summon these FB's.

Which brings up the whole question of time. Is it really there? Or is a mere convention that we have adopted to facilitate not being late for an appointment? I believe that our core beliefs about living determine the outcome of every aspect of our lives, and that for me, time does not exist.

I have also written a novel and yes, the editing is hell. I will continue, for I have fallen in love with the whole creative process. I have a supernatural theme in my work, too. I have just submitted, yesterday, sample chapters to Tor Books in NYC, and am really jazzed. Wish me luck!
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Anyone who has survived the editing period deserves to be read with respect. I see that you are currently reading books on how to get published. Are they useful? I read several books on how to write a novel. At the time I was in hospital undergoing a painful treatment. The books caused twice as much pain as the lumbar punctions! They were so confusing and contradictory, not to mention constricting.
Indeed flashbacks are a literary must. Unless you follow the protagonists from birth onward, you are bound to (retroactively) describe their past experiences. And flashbacks not only serve to depict the past, sometime they are used to describe recent events. In Gone with the Wind, the author starts a chapter with Scarlett at the barbecue in Twelve Oaks, but immediately she recalls earlier events that happened on the same day: her arrival to the plantation, her meeting with Ashley and Melanie and so on.
XX century Latin-American literary tradition scorns “real” time and plays with it continually. Garcia Marques’ One Hundred Years of Solitude sets off with a paragraph in which a character that hasn’t even been born yet (Colonel Aureliano Buendia) faces a firing squad and remembers a particular day in his childhood. Then the story opens with Aureliano´s parents, their marriage, and the events that led to the births of Aureliano and his brother.
I am trying to think when a flashback could be pointless, extreme, or badly used. There must be several examples but I cannot find them in the books I’ve read. However, the ruling against them must come from somewhere. Somehow those rules seem so arbitrary. For example, they also warn you to beware of extensive descriptions, and advise to describe through dialogue, and yet the rule is that no dialogue should exceed three pages (Tell that to Hemingway). I was even told by a friend that I should never finish a chapter with a character sleeping because it induces the reader to take a nap and forget the book!
 
malena2006 said:
to find out that supernatural romance is indeed a new and popular genre.Apparently is a subcategory of gothic and mystery romance. It covers science fiction , ghost, vampires, werewolves, time travel romances, and , of course, fantasy.
To be honest, I don’t know if my novel belongs in that genre, but if I have to put a label on it (and I will have to eventually) that is the only one that seems to apply since romance and the supernatural play an important part in my plot.
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Whoo, your story sounds interesting! =^-^=
 
Generally speaking, I think that flashbacks are perfectly acceptable (and sometimes absolutely necessary), as long as you know why you're using them on each occasion. Just ask yourself, for each flashback that you use, what purpose does this serve, and how does my story benefit by having that flashback here? If you can give yourself a satisfactory answer, then go for it and use the flashback.

Just my opinion, of course. :)

Incidentally, regarding flashbacks being confusing, I'd say that flashbacks are usually confusing for one of two reasons: An unintentional ambiguity in the narrative concerning what (and when) is being described (where the two scenes essentially 'bleed' into one another); and reader confusion over why the flashback is relevant to the present scene (the flashback feels like a non sequitur). That's not to say that flasbacks must always make immediate sense, but there seems to be a fine line between creating mystery, and simply bewildering a reader. ;)

Again, all very much just my own opinion. :)

(I'm new here, by the way. Be gentle...:p )
 
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