6 Tips on How to Write a Flashback Effectively
If you want to add depth into your writing, you should know how to write a flashback. A flashback is a scene that is inserted into the narrative, from a preceding time period. It is meant to show readers formative and essential moments that explain a character’s present state of mind. By knowing how to write a flashback, you will be able to make your character’s actions easier to explain. It will also clarify key concepts in your writing. Here are 6 tips on how to write a flashback effectively.
1. Make sure a flashback is necessary
Before you start writing your flashback scene, it is important that you make sure that your flashback is necessary. Remember that a flashback will enhance the reading experience, however, if you add a flashback just for the sake of having a flashback, then you should refrain from using flashbacks at all. So before you write your flashback, you should ask the following questions. Does my story really need a flashback? How will it enhance my story? How will I properly write the flashback without encumbering my writing? By asking yourself these questions, you will be able to ascertain that your story needs a flashback, and you could get started on it right away.
2. Make a list of key details
Once you fully decide that your flashback is necessary, it is important that you make a list of the key details you should include in the flashback. These details should be the exact time, place, and characters that take part in the flashback. By having a list of your flashback’s key details, you will be able to write a coherent flashback that will support your overall narrative.
3. Be careful with your flashback’s time period
Aside from being careful with the key details in your flashback, it is also important that you choose the right time period for your flashback. Nothing destroys a flashback more, than an inconsistent time period. It makes the flashback scene feel amateurishly done, and have the readers wonder if the author knows what he or she is doing. Before you write your flashback, you should make sure that your time period is spot on.
4. Experiment with your flashback transition
If you are going to use a flashback in your story it is very important that you transition from the main storyline to the flashback smoothly. If you don’t write your flashback transition smoothly, your work will sound awkward and forced. Flashback transitions could be written in various ways. You could write a short introduction or you could even launch straight into the flashback at the start of a chapter. You could also insert the flashback after strong or dramatic scenes, such as when a character divulges a secret or exposes a crime. A flashback is perfect for these instances, because they will further clarify the overall story.
5. The Flashback should support your overall story
If you want your flashback to mean something, it is important that it should support your overall story. You should write your flashbacks in such a detailed way, that you could cite it in various parts of the story. For example, you wrote a flashback in the first chapter of the book. When you write the flashback, it should contain key details, and could be cited five chapters later. It is this attention to detail, that will make your flashback writing as efficient and effective as possible.
6. Be consistent with your tense
When you write your flashback, it is important that you utilize your tenses as consistently as possible. You could choose to use a present tense or a past tense when writing your flashback. What’s important is that you stay consistent with them throughout the scene. It could be both confusing and annoying for the reader to read your flashback in a past tense, and read it in the present tense the next sentence. Overall, when it comes to using flashbacks, it is important that you stay consistent with your tense.
Conclusion
When it comes to writing a flashback, you will need to know what you are doing. You just can’t start on the flashback writing process without a set plan. If you start on your flashback without a plan, your flashback will have a lot of loose ends. It will inevitably confuse your readers instead of clarifying things with them. With these six tips, you’ll be able to write a flashback as effectively as possible.
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