Krim

Well, here is the problem I face.

I want to start off closer to the action with my story. It begins by having a person resurrected (yay, fantasy). He begins to become a bit literate, able to string together some sentences but nothing in the advanced level. Then, the area he is located in is possessed, and a poltergeist awakens, kills the protagonist's surrogate father, and adopts the child as a servant.

I want to pare this part off, and I have a section where I can mention it where it will solve a problem --- the character will be freed from the servitude of the poltergeist, but his natural character makes him have sentimental attachments, as isolated children tend to do. By summing this up in a brief flashback, just mentioning how the poltergeist took him away from his father, I lose word count but I also lose a bit of solidity and make it vague as to the heritage of the character.

Basically, what is your opinion on the use of flashbacks? How long should they be before they become glaring exposition (even more so)? Or should I just start with the resurrection and whatnot, even if I sacrifice a bit of pacing and possibly lose the attention of a few people?

I suppose I could shove it into a prologue, since a lot of readers tend to skim those anyway. The problem with that is prologues tend to be self-contained. Chapter Zero, perhaps?

Kimba

I think it would depend on whether the flashback is in first person narrative or third person narrative. If it's the former, flashbacks are usually in a form of memory. People don't remember chunks at a time. They usually need some sort of sensory cue to help them remember it - especially if it's a distant memory.

It's like a mystery waiting to be solved. Readers don't want to read the first paragraph which reveals all the essential informaiton before the novel's even begun. Start off with a few "clues" and as the present story proceeds, add more to the flashblacks.

Hope that helps.

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Kimba
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MASK

The important thing to remember about flashbacks is that it stops the action dead. You'll have to build the momentum again, and you'll have to make it worth the readers' time. Flashbacks can be very useful, but I'd suggest using them sparingly, and framing them in the context of the story; there ought to be a good reason for the character to have the flashback, or else some other valid reason you're visiting the past at that point.

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"There I stood in the darkness, and before me lay the death of the world." -- Xavier St. John, 'Tenement of Clay'

"This is how the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper." -- T.S. Eliot, 'The Hollow Men'

CroZ

The character is on the run and we don't know why because he dosent talk about himself.
In that case a flashback can be usefull, say when he arrives at his old house. When the flashback/s start we can sense the writer is building to something important, maybe we find out that he killed his wife, or why a psychotic murderer killed His wife if we already know what happened.

In my view, simply saying, 'I killed my wife' or displaying it through extended naration lessens the impact.
I sometimes like when writers cut the flashes into small bits ... say like:
protag enters the house - opening flashback - he moves to a photo of his wife - flashback of happy times - antagonist enters seeking revenge for something, but what? - flashback of how protag's wife died - protag and antag fight - during which final flashback plays, revealing antag as wife's brother/lover - afterwhich the protag might seem more the villain.

Whereas in another case, simply showing how a dark lord was revived/summoned, by a ritual I imagine, is a tad boring and leaves little to be desired by the end, other than: oh gee, is that him ...? Interesting.
A flashback showing how the dark lord became the dark lord is a bit more interesting, usually ending with symapthy for the antagonist.

In both cases the flashback can also show us what the person was like before said event changed him.

Talia_Brie

I'm generally not a fan of flashbacks. I tend to think there isn't any information that can't be adequately delivered to the reader through good narrative and dialogue.

However, I am a huge fan of non-linear storytelling. This is telling two stories at once. Katherine Kerr did it to a degree with that Deverry books. Quentin Tarantino did it with Pulp Fiction. Steven Erikson does it to a degree as well, but in a very limited capacity.

It's a much bigger challenge trying to fit two stories together, especially when they are happening at different times, and their conclusions/climaxes need to occur simultaneously, at which point the connections would become clear.

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Spherical Time

I find myself agreeing with MASK and Talia. Flashbacks should be used sparingly or not at all.

One way that I've found that works for me to avoid a flashback is to have a two characters simply talk about it, and show a little bit through exposition at the same time.

Same information without a shift in timelines.

mwd

I've written stories where half of the scenes are flashbacks. In fact I've used so many flashbacks I think of it as non-linear storytelling, so that the two threads of the story are happening to the same characters, and are influencing each other, but are happening at different times. One is the present, the other is their history together, then with the final scene break it's shown how the earlier timeline has influenced now.

As for stopping the action dead, it only does that if your flashback doesn't have any action. If the flashback is interesting and enjoyable to read on its own merits, I don't think that really counts as "stopping the action". It only is a problem if your flashback is boring, or an infodump, or otherwise bad writing.

Properly done flashbacks are never glaring exposition, because they are generally written as scenes, as snapshots of specific moments in time. They should do more than convey the information, they should work as individual scenes with conflict and action and interaction between characters, like any other scene in your story. Just because it's a flashback, does not give you a license to make it a history lesson.

The story I'm working on at the moment would be weakened by not using flashbacks. Sometimes saying, "My mom got hit by a car five years ago," just won't cut it. You need to let the reader see the bus, hear the sound of its horn, feel the wetness of the driver's sweat, etc.

Like anything else, flashbacks done well are fine. Flashbacks done badly aren't fine.

Do what you think will work best. Then do what you think won't work. Then compare your results.

CroZ

If flashbacks were evil, there'd be no Cold Case.

Fantasy of You

Flashbacks might stop action dead, but they don't stop the story, they build upon it and give depth to it and the character.

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It's only natural to want something profound in your sig.

bob rulz

I'm going to have to agree with the group that says flashbacks should be used in moderation. Sure, it can be an effective plot device. However, it should be used in specific circumstances, not merely to tell the story.

"This is what happened...*flashback*" is a major turn-off for me. mwd's example wouldn't qualify for me, since that's merely showing what happened. When it's used to actually advance the story, when used as an effective plot device, or when used to build suspense or keep up the pace, then flashbacks are okay. When they're used to merely show what happened, however, that's when I have a problem. That should be able to be shown through narrative and dialogue in the main story arc, not shoved off to the side and shown in detail. Just doesn't work for me.

Kimba

I'm personally not fond of reading about two people talking about something that's already happened. If you do that, you might as well write the actual flashback. It's a bit like watching a tennis game - lot of dialogue and not much else.

Flashbacks are fine if you know how to write them creatively. Even a lot of flashbacks will work if you don't overload the reader with information or distract them with trivia stuff. Like everything else, writing flashbacks is an art that needs to be perfected.

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Kimba
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MASK

One trick to a good flashback is your segue into it. Typically, one of the least obtrusive ways to get to a flash back is to use 'had' to signal you're moving into flashback mode. Don't keep using 'had' however, as it becomes very distracting. Just one or two at the beginning of the flashback ought to be enough to ease the reader in. Then write it like you would any other part of your book:

James had gone to the butcher's shop a week ago last Thursday. Frank, the owner, had been working the counter himself. He'd greeted James with a grin, even though he'd been having the worst day of his life. "How you doin', ol' boy?"

James smiled back, not sure what he was going to tell the big man, but the truth certainly wasn't it. "Not much, just knocking around. How's business?"

__________________
"There I stood in the darkness, and before me lay the death of the world." -- Xavier St. John, 'Tenement of Clay'

"This is how the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper." -- T.S. Eliot, 'The Hollow Men'