I have a scene where my protagonist is alone and thinking back to the last time she saw a close friend. I'm thinking of writing the conversation they had as a flashback within a chapter. Firstly, is this just a lazy way of writing? Secondly, what is the correct way to do it? Do I use italics for the whole section? I need to have the protagonist on her own mulling over things and the conversation with her friend wouldn't work if I put it in earlier. I think it would be too boring (YA audience) if I just had my girl walking up and down pondering!

S

If she recalls the whole scene in one chunk, I think you just need to flag very clearly at the beginning and end, and otherwise write it the usual way, shifting from plu-perfect to perfect tense: [feeble example coming up].

[quote]I thought back to how Jenny had come into the kitchen that day. She'd flung her bag onto the table and then without asking she'd sat down. 'I waited at the bus stop, but you didn't come,' she said.
I stirred my coffee. 'I got stuck at work.

and then make it very clear when you come back to the present of the novel:

How long ago was that? A week? I hadn't seen her since.[/quote]

On the other hand, if you're interweaving your character's current thoughts with bits of memories of the past scene, you could use italics to make it clear it's remembered speech, not happening now:

[quote]I remembered her coming in and flinging her bag onto the table I waited at the bus stop, but you didn't come. What did I answer? I couldn't remember, except that I made coffee that she didn't liked: too strong, sugar please she probably said, as so often, but I couldn't remember for sure.[quote]

You can get into a pickle with tenses with this one, but it's more fluid than a chunk of flashback.

Emma

Thanks, Emma. That's very helpful. I think I'll go for option A!

Sue

Sue

I agree with Emma. The knack is to find some way of signalling to the reader that you have switched into flashback.

Another device is to bracket the 'flashback' between some symbol: asterisks are a popular choice, as in

main theme..... * flashback goes here... * back to the main theme...

In answer to the question 'Are they lazy writing?' the answer is 'No - but they could be!' and I guess that's the danger.

Handled carefully - with proper clues to the reader - they are another useful tool in the toolbox.

Hope this helps

jumbo

There was a longish thread on flashbacks a while back. Can't remember enough to track it down, I'm afraid - anyone out there remember? I think it was someone who wanted to start with a flashback as a sort of prologue...?

I don't think flashbacks are necessarily lazy writing, but they can make for a bit of a bumpy ride. There's always a risk that if you take readers back into the past too thoroughly (which in a way you want to, if you want the flashback to have the same immediacy as the rest) they won't find it easy to come back to the 'present'. Certainly integrating the back-story you want to convey into the present story is harder to do, but often reads better. Plus I have a theory that in real life we do remember the past in bits and pieces and flashes interwoven with our current consciousness, so that integrating it is much closer to real life than a lurch back to a chunk of past, and then a lurch forward.

Emma

Thanks Emma and Jumbo. I've had a go at the passage I was working on and the flashback is shorter than I thought it would be (it's someone recalling a conversation). I'm going to live with it for a bit and then go back to it!

Sue

Yes, sometimes you only know the answer when you've gone well past it, and can look back.

Emma

... or otherwise known as re-read, re-edit, re-raed, re-edit ....

Sue,

I don't think flashbacks are by any means a form of lazy writing. Quite the contrary. The challenge is to make sure that there are clear indications that it is a flashback (Emma and Jumbo have made suggestions) and that the contribution of the flashback is relevant and helps the story along.

After all, in general writing, there are constant references to past happenings to help create a clearer image of characters and scenes and, of course, the emotional states and attitudes of your characters.

I would perhaps favour more the use of flashbacks if they are strongly associated with fundamental, vital or very important landmarks in the story.

Len

Thanks Len. I think I need to work out why I think I need a flashback! I'll work on the chapter and then post it!
Sue

I think I need to work out why I think I need a flashback

I think that's very often true. If you try to write a scene or whatever, and you try it every which way, and it keeps not being right, it's often because that scene shouldn't be there in the first place. You have to go up a level, as you say, Sue, and discover why you're trying to have it in the first place.

Emma

<Added>

Here's the earlier thread I was remembering on flashbacks it's a more general exploration, (and nothing to do with prologues) but interesting:

http://www.writewords.org.uk/forum/65_47123.asp

Sue,

Having had my own writing criticised for being "too linear", I wouldn't say flashbacks are at all a bad idea, or a lazy way of writing. They allow a story to be made non-linear, without having to start up several threads at the same time. They can, however, make a story very confusing, if it isn't clear which bits are flashbacks and which "current" events. In my opinion, it is the danger of confusing the reader that is the biggest drawback of using them.

Another method of marking out the flashback, in addition to the ones suggested by Emma and Jumbo, is to lead in and out of it from the prose which surrounds it. For example:

...Amanda's mind went back three months [to whatever]. [Flashback] The doorbell rang, bringing Amanda out of her reverie with a start... [back to "current" events]

I've seen similar devices to the above used in published novels, and it always seemed to work quite well as far as reader comprehension went.


Alex

I've read a few novels where a flashback is simply a new paragraph written in italics after a reference to the event in the final sentence of the paragraph before. Depending on the impact you're expecting the flashback to have, you might want to try writing it a few different ways, and see what best suits your purposes.