Hi Ashlinn,

I agree that 'My Lover's Lover' was not as strong (though I still enjoyed it) but with the third, 'The Distance Between Us', I reckon she fully redeems herself.

Please post a message about her talk if you do go.

Myrtle

There's 'flashback', 'prologue' amd all that cal - and then there's 'memory' in first-person narration, which seems unproblematic to me. How often do you 'flashback' during the day? Most of the time, I guess - when you aren't 'flashing forward'. Anything to avoid being where you are.

Joe

Its worth reading good authors such as William Golding. He was a master of the flashback, though he didn't use it in every novel.

For example, "Pincher Martin" is set in the mind of a drowning man, the seconds it takes him to drown all his life flashes before him.

"Freefall" is another novel where he is dictating his life in first person. Sometimes his youth comes before flashbacks as a child. Very well done.

Patrick White, the Australian author, also handled flashbacks with genius. He can take the character back twenty minutes, twenty years then back again in a single sentence with ease.

I thinkk the secret is to write well - then everything is possible!

Its worth reading good authors such as William Golding. He was a master of the flashback, though he didn't use it in every novel.

For example, "Pincher Martin" is set in the mind of a drowning man, the seconds it takes him to drown all his life flashes before him.

"Freefall" is another novel where he is dictating his life in first person. Sometimes his youth comes before flashbacks as a child. Very well done.

Patrick White, the Australian author, also handled flashbacks with genius. He can take the character back twenty minutes, twenty years then back again in a single sentence with ease.

I think the secret is to write well - then everything is possible!

If anyone wants to see this done brilliantly on screen, watch Memento.

JB

Can anyone kindly define 'flashback' for me here? Is it the same thing as giving a little bit of 'back story'?
Is that a ridiculous question?

Caroline, backstory is when the narrative explains something that’s already happened. Flashback is when the character goes back to a previous time – it could be childhood, yesterday, or any point in between – and relives it to the extent that in the story it appears to be happening in the present. Then at the end of the passage the reader is brought back to the actual present and reminded that it has all been a memory.

Dee

Ah, thanks Dee.

I find the business of weaving back story into a plot really hard, mainly because I tend to add too much. It's useful for me to hear these views and definitions of something closely related.