In a post on the Killzone blog, James Scott Bell offers advice about using flashbacks. Bell is a bit more broadminded than Sinclair Lewis, whose only advice about flashbacks was “Don’t.”
The most important point of a flashback is that is comprises an action. “A flashback is rendered as an actual scene or set of scenes, with dramatic conflict,” Bell says. “If you only use narration, you’re telling us about the past. Better to have the reader caught up in a scene, as if it’s happening now.”
A flashback provides information and context, but it can also be used strategically. For example, you can insert a flashback at a moment of high tension, leaving your reader in suspense about what’s coming next. Bell says you shouldn’t drop flashbacks too early, or you risk losing momentum at the beginning of your novel. But you also shouldn’t use them too late, because you don’t want to pull your reader out of the drama of your climax.
Bell suggests putting full flashback scenes – if you use any – just before or just after the middle of your novel. By that point, your protagonist should be fully engaged in their goals but hasn’t yet reached the denouement.
Bell also offers advice for segueing in and out of flashbacks. “When you’re about to go to flashback, put in a strong, sensory detail that triggers the memory in the POV character,” he suggests. Jump back to that detail when you want to pull the reader back out.
Rather than full scenes, you can also use what Bell calls the backflash. “These are short bursts in which you drop info about the past within a present moment scene,” he explains. Usually, this is accomplished with dialogue or thoughts. “The nice thing about backflashes is they create mystery,” Bell writes. “You don’t give all the info at once, leaving the reader wanting to know more. You make them wait until the next backflash, and the next.”
