How to Sneak Flashbacks into Your Novel

By Spencer Ellsworth, @spencimus

Part of The How They Do It Series

JH: Flashbacks are on the "use with caution" list of writing, but done well, they can enrich a novel. Spencer Ellsworth share thoughts on how to make flashbacks work in your story.

Spencer Ellsworth is the author of The Great Faerie Strike from Broken Eye Books and the Starfire space opera trilogy from Tor. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and three children, and would really like a war mammoth if you know a guy.

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Take it away Spencer…

What "Stranger Things" Can Teach Us About Flashbacks

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

If you haven’t discovered the new Netflix show Stranger Things yet, do yourself a favor and go watch it. It’s a terrific and fun series that evokes all the things we loved about the ’80s, spooky horror movies, Dungeons and Dragons adventures, and Stephen King.

It also uses flashback extremely well.

If you’re not familiar with the show, it’s set in the 1980s and begins when a 12-year-old boy, Will, disappears after playing a game of D&D with his friends. This coincides with the mysterious arrival of a 12-year-old girl, Elle. Will’s friends find Elle when they’re searching for him. After that, strange (and stranger) things begin to happen. I won’t say more or it’ll spoil it.

Cover Me, I'm Going Back: Tips on Writing Flashbacks

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

We spend a lot of time building the histories of our characters, so it's no wonder we want to get some of that into the story. A flashback can be a useful way to convey information and add depth to both plot and character, but it can also stop a story cold if done poorly. By definition, flashbacks interrupt the story to convey information from another time.

Like so many things in writing, there's nothing wrong with flashbacks if they're done well and are necessary for the story. When the protagonist's past has bearing on the current plot, it might be an opportunity to stop and show what happened in that past. If the information is shoved in there to explain something for the readers, it might be the type of flashback to reconsider.