This week: What Exactly Is a Flashback Good For? Edited by: Joy  
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"When you ask someone a question, you trigger an unconscious flashback of their having been put on the spot earlier in life by a teacher, parent, or coach, and you create a syntactical 'you versus me' disconnect."
Mark Goulston
"I think 'Lost' didn't invent the flashback, obviously. It's been a cinematic tool. It's been around almost as long as cinema has."
Paul W. S. Anderson
"Flashback episodes are a tried-and-true sitcom device, but they always work!"
Phoebe Robinson
"Originally the film opened with Ryan in the doctor's office, being told his wife is dying. Then we see him walking the streets, and the story is told in flashback.
Arthur Hiller
I've seen 'Fried Green Tomatoes' too many times. I love life stories told in flashback."
Liam James
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Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about the use of flashbacks.
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement. |
Welcome to the Drama Newsletter
Do you sometimes worry about the use or misuse of the flashbacks in your storytelling? if you do, you are not alone. This is because the information in a flashback isn't really fresh. That thing or moment has already happened and it is easy to lose the immediacy of the plot's events.
Yet, there is something that's called relevance. We writers. with flashbacks, may temporarily lose the immediacy but we gain relevance and better explanation of the internal workings of the events and our characters' reactions. For example, flashbacks can help build suspense with the murder in the Hunger Games, and best yet, they explain a character's motivations or the world's history. Through flashbacks we also gain information about characters as was shown in Wuthering Heights about Heathcliff and Catherine's childhood days.
So, what is a flashback? It is a narrative device when a character usually recalls a meaningful event from the past. In other words, it is mostly a present-day narration that dips into the past. Then, a good flashback doesn't even alert the reader with "I'm a flashback," but it flows naturally from the present into past and to the depths of a character or plot.
In fact, there are some novels and stories that use the past totally with a present-day narration. I call these "I remember" stories. Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird comes to mind, among the books I read a very long time ago. In this entire novel, Scout Finch remembers her childhood, with her present-day storytelling about the past events almost totally. Plus, among the many other such examples, Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is told through many flashbacks recounted by Nelly Dean.
A flashback can also be offered as if a backstory in an introductory beginning paragraph or section, or it can be incorporated into the story later on. Whichever way is used, as long as we orient our readers, seamlessly, into a flashback, that flashback can help the understanding of the story instead of suddenly shocking the readers. This may need a bit of planning and a little more work.
Some writers write in the present tense, so it is easier for them to include a flashback in the past tense. Then, some writers start the flashback by indicating or telling the readers that it’s a memory. For example, in the Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad has his character Marlow, on ship, see the sunset and begin to tell of his journey up the Congo River, which had taken place years earlier. Here, Conrad used the setting as a trigger for Marlow's memory.
Yet, some others show how a person or place can have the past and the present setting side by side. Most of these stories use triggers that start as if they are sensory details, with possibly, "Years earlier..." or "He now recalls..." or by shifting the tense into past perfect, as in " She had done this before..." etc.
To wrap it up, to write a good flashback, we need to make sure that flashback has a purpose and is essential to the story. In other words, flashbacks should not be used as an easy way to dump exposition. Instead, they should reveal character motivations, build up the stakes, and answer the questions in the readers' minds. Also, using triggers and tense changes should be consistent, and the flashback itself should offer a new understanding and a passage to the next action in the actual story.
May we all effectively draw from our fictional stories' pasts to understand who their characters are and what helps their present.
Until next time!  |
 Enjoy!
| |  | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1069313 by Not Available. |
| |  | Flashbacks (E)
This short story uses the flashback technique to tell episodes of childhood adventures.
#2339162 by Kermit  |
| | | LACING UP (E)
Finding peace hiking Mt. Rainier, recalling childhood summers amid vibrant wildflowers.
#2345812 by Eric Owens |
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Thank you for reading this Drama Newsletter.
 This Issue's Tip: Every flashback must be essential. Ask yourself if the information is needed now and if it moves the main story forward.
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Drama: January 28, 2026 Issue [#13556]
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