Flash back - is it worth it?
Who doesn't have fond memories of the movie, Back To The Future? What a fun way to go back in time and see what made our current day character who he or she is. In literature, this is much more difficult to achieve.
I admit that I rarely pay attention to chapter titles. If the chapter heading is March, 2001, I probably skipped right over it. Of course, once I get to the next chapter where the date may be June, 2015. At that point, I have to stop, go back to the start and check to see how much time has elapsed. I'm not saying that this cannot be done well, only that I find it confusing. I admit it - I'm lazy. I want to start my book and have it flow from one day to the next without jumping backwards into some past event. I might even say it was lazy on the author's part as well. The insertion of backstory takes effort.
The reader wants to know why a character behaves a certain way. Was the killer abused as a child? Was the greedy villain raised poor? These characteristics can be introduced to the reader in a more subtle fashion than simply flashing back to give a narrative of his/her childhood.
One way this can be accomplished is to use dialogue and narrative in a combination. Here's an example:
The boy of her dreams stands smoking a cigarette behind the gym. Molly strolls by, her eyes glued to the ground.
"Hey, want to have a smoke with me?" He calls.
She desperately wants him to like her, to fit in somewhere, but thoughts of her father's last days as he suffered from lung cancer propel her forward, as if she hadn't heard.
The reader now knows that Molly has a crush, she's lonely and that her father has passed away. That's a lot to cram into one sample sentence but works better than an entire chapter devoted to what happened in her life months prior.
As you read, keep an eye out for where the author has flashbacks. Is it done so smoothly that you almost missed it, or is it so obvious you have to re-read a former passage to keep your place?
Happy Trails,
Leslie
Visit my website
I admit that I rarely pay attention to chapter titles. If the chapter heading is March, 2001, I probably skipped right over it. Of course, once I get to the next chapter where the date may be June, 2015. At that point, I have to stop, go back to the start and check to see how much time has elapsed. I'm not saying that this cannot be done well, only that I find it confusing. I admit it - I'm lazy. I want to start my book and have it flow from one day to the next without jumping backwards into some past event. I might even say it was lazy on the author's part as well. The insertion of backstory takes effort.
The reader wants to know why a character behaves a certain way. Was the killer abused as a child? Was the greedy villain raised poor? These characteristics can be introduced to the reader in a more subtle fashion than simply flashing back to give a narrative of his/her childhood.
One way this can be accomplished is to use dialogue and narrative in a combination. Here's an example:
The boy of her dreams stands smoking a cigarette behind the gym. Molly strolls by, her eyes glued to the ground.
"Hey, want to have a smoke with me?" He calls.
She desperately wants him to like her, to fit in somewhere, but thoughts of her father's last days as he suffered from lung cancer propel her forward, as if she hadn't heard.
The reader now knows that Molly has a crush, she's lonely and that her father has passed away. That's a lot to cram into one sample sentence but works better than an entire chapter devoted to what happened in her life months prior.
As you read, keep an eye out for where the author has flashbacks. Is it done so smoothly that you almost missed it, or is it so obvious you have to re-read a former passage to keep your place?
Happy Trails,
Leslie
Visit my website
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