The Art of Writing: How to Write Bestselling Novels

Flashbacks & Alternatives

Have you ever heard that flashbacks are bad to use in books?

Well, most of the time, that's true, but not always. If done in just the right situation and in just the right way, they can be very effective. Often, though, the book has to be designed around them. Therefore, most of the time, you want to stay away from flashbacks because they usually destroy the forward momentum of the story, which is what's driving the reader to really want to keep reading to see what happens.

My first rule when writing is no flashbacks. But don't get me wrong--that doesn't mean I definitely won't use them. It just means that I will look for every possible way to avoid them, which will up my game as a writer, big time.

TECHNIQUE 1
For instance, if the characters talk about old times or old events, remembering them, this gives the sense that the characters have a lot of history together without ever having to show a flashback.

TECHNIQUE 2
Explaining the past in exposition instead of using a flashback scene is something else you have to do at just the right time in just the right setting, and something interesting needs to be happening in the scene to make it intriguing or mysterious in some way. That dresses up the fact that the reader is getting a big info dump.

Exposition has to be done in the right situation. For instance, two characters who've known each other for a long time won't need to discuss something they both know already. That would feel completely unrealistic to the readers. But if one of the characters has been hiding something from the other, then the exposition makes sense. However--and this is a big however--the thing the character has been hiding has to be very important to the other character and the story. No one cares if the hidden information isn't that important. But when it's really important, so much so that it makes a big reveal that changes the story drastically, then it's worthy of using in the story. In other words, you need to make sure the information is important by shaping your story around its reveal. Then it has meaning to the reader and will make a big impact.

For instance, let's say the MC's (main character's) dad died when he was 13, and part of the main storyline requires the MC to figure out what happened to his. Problem is, the MC has no idea his dad didn't die of natural causes and so he doesn't know he needs to figure out why his dad died.

But his friend, who's a girl, is actually responsible for getting his father killed because she innocently shared information with a guy she didn't know was a hit an for a big company that wanted the MC's father dead. And to build the tension more, the girl gave the information away for selfish reasons--she was mad at the MC back then for some reason. Maybe because she liked him as more than a friend and he didn't seem to notice or care about her that way. That makes what happened even worse.

But let's build the tension more. Let's say they're currently dating in the story and they got together not long ago. That's more tension because the characters could lose their relationship of the MC blames the girl for his father's death.

But let's build the tension more. The book, up to this point, has consisted of the girl being the second POV character, and she's been pining over the MC, wanting him to ask her out for half the book or more. That means the reader will really find it very important that she eventually dates the main character. So they finally start dating and the reader is very happy about that.

But suddenly, the reader learns that the girl has a dark secret--that she's partly responsible for the MC's father's death. If she tells him, that could potentially cause a lot of problems for them.

But--yes, another but--let's build the tension even more. Let's say she's planning to tell the MC her secret, but he finds out from someone else first, which makes it look like she wasn't going to tell him about it at all. Now he feels betrayed and manipulated by her and he freaks out and leaves her. So when the information about the past is given in exposition from another character (instead of through a flashback), it has a ton of meaning and therefore impact on the characters and storyline.

Do you now see the importance of building the tension to give the flashback information more meaning? It's vital to a story to set it up well. That's why some writing instructors teach their students to write backward. Once they know how that big scene will happen, they can then go back in their story and craft it in such a way to build the tension up to that point to give it maximum impact.

In movies, they do exactly what I just said, but they'll often cut from the person telling the flashback information into a full-fledged flashback scene so that the information has more impact. That works in a movie, but usually doesn't in a book. So you need to make sure you craft the exposition scene very well. It needs to be very quick exposition that gets right to the point. And the final piece of the exposition has to be the bombshell information so you're leaving the scene with a heavy cliffhanger. That nearly forces the reader to turn the page and keep reading. (Yes, as writers, we are evil manipulators of people, trying to get them addicted to our brand of entertainment--live with it. lol)

That last technique of dropping the bombshell information at the end of a sentence, paragraph, and/or scene is called back-loading. You're back-loading the sentence or paragraph or scene with the high-impact information. Really, it should be called end-loading since the info is at the end, but end-loading just doesn't sound right.

TECHNIQUE 3
This technique is called the idiot in the room. If you have a new character that has no knowledge of the past, then it makes perfect sense for another character to share that information with them in exposition.

However, you don't want to waste much time doing this. Make it quick and to the point--just enough to get them up to speed. Bare minimum. Write the scene thirty times if you have to in order to make that piece of information very short. It's vital or you'll kill the story momentum and look like a poor writer.

Don't worry. We all start out as poor writers. Just like when we're young, we have to first be immature to grow into maturity, so we, too, must start out as a bad writer in order to grow into a good writer. That's life. Just gotta accept and learn to enjoy that about life instead of guilting and shaming yourself for it illogically. Poor writing teaches us a lot as we learn better techniques and practice them.

RECURRING FLASHBACK STORYLINE
Some books make the flashbacks their own continuous story, like you're reading two separate books. You'll be reading the main storyline chapters, and then suddenly, the next chapter you come to is a flashback chapter. Then you'll read more main storyline chapters and eventually get to another flashback chapter that continues where the last one left off.

I'm actually not sure if there's a literary term for this, but I would probably call it a recurring flashback substory storyline. Maybe it could simply be called a flashback storyline.

Either way, you get the idea.

The only rules for these types of stories are to make the flashback storyline really intriguing, and make sure it links directly to the main storyline with vital information to the story. It needs to do this at just the right time, too.

Imagine if you had some huge twist toward the end of your story, but the flashback gave it away early on. That would totally ruin your main storyline twist. So engineer your flashback storyline to drop key bits of information at just the right time. However, don't let that destroy the intrigue of its storyline. Make the storyline intriguing and the info drops perfectly timed for the main storyline.

TAKE-HOME MESSAGE
Flashbacks are really more of a movie mechanic, meaning they can work so much better in movies, where as in a book, they'd fall flat on their face. Stay away from them like they're the plague unless your book is shaped around a recurring flashback substory storyline. And always look for creative ways to avoid flashbacks and make the vital information have meaning and high-impact for the reader.

ASSIGNMENT
Now go use these techniques on your info dumps and flashbacks. Eliminate them by reshaping the story to accommodate a new method of delivering that information.

Good luck, and as always, please vote for this chapter if you liked it.

(NOTE: I cannot take reading requests since I barely have time to run my business, write, and spend an appropriate amount of time with my wife and son. Plenty of good, fun family time is vital to a kid's development, so I always want to make sure my son gets a lot of that.)