how to do a flashback in creative writing

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How to Write a Flashback

Last Updated: January 26, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was reviewed by Gerald Posner and by wikiHow staff writer, Megaera Lorenz, PhD . Gerald Posner is an Author & Journalist based in Miami, Florida. With over 35 years of experience, he specializes in investigative journalism, nonfiction books, and editorials. He holds a law degree from UC College of the Law, San Francisco, and a BA in Political Science from the University of California-Berkeley. He’s the author of thirteen books, including several New York Times bestsellers, the winner of the Florida Book Award for General Nonfiction, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History. He was also shortlisted for the Best Business Book of 2020 by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 44,900 times.

A flashback in a story or a film is a way to show action that took place prior to the main events of the story. Flashbacks can be useful for giving the reader or viewer background information or shedding light on a character’s motivations. For a flashback to be effective, it must move the story forward in some way, feel immersive and interesting, and be clearly recognizable to the reader or viewer as a flashback.

Writing a Flashback in Prose Fiction

• Provide information about a character’s past that sheds light on their current actions, beliefs, or attitudes (such as revealing a past trauma or other formative experience in the character’s life).
• Give context or information about events that are happening during the present plot (such as an important clue to a mystery plot).
• Helping the world of the story feel deeper and richer (e.g., providing historical background for the setting of a fantasy story).

• If you feel you must provide past information in order for the start of the story to make sense, simply begin the story at a past point in time and then skip forward to the main timeframe.
• Avoid using flashbacks during intense action scenes, since they can slow down the action and make it feel choppy.

• Don’t feel confined to writing your flashback in the past tense. If your main timeframe is written in the simple past, you might make the flashback feel more immediate and engaging by putting it in the present tense.
• For example: “Harold lifted the perfume bottle to his nose, feeling the brittle paper of the label beneath his fingers. That smell . . . It’s 1922. His mother sits at her vanity, brushing her hair. The room smells faintly of oranges and vanilla.”

• Maybe you want to show how your character came to pursue their current career. Instead of giving a lengthy account of how their interests developed, show a single moment that inspired them.
• For example, if your character is an archaeologist, your flashback might describe them visiting a museum as a child and being awed and captivated by a particular artifact.

• For example, instead of setting a flashback at some vague point during your character’s childhood, you might set it in August, a few days before their 6th birthday.
• It can also help to think about how specific details might differ between your flashback and the present day. Do your characters look, act, or speak differently? How has the setting changed? Is the cultural context different? [5] X Research source

• Specify the date of your flashback (e.g., “It was a warm August night in 1979.”)
• Set the flashback apart by using a different tense from the main narrative (e.g., past perfect instead of simple past—“He had been eating far too much chocolate, and his stomach had begun to ache.”)
• State overtly in the text that your point-of-view character is remembering a past event. (E.g., “Harold was suddenly gripped by a memory—he saw his father silhouetted in the doorway, holding the cat in his arms.”)

• For example: “At the sound of Wilfred’s voice, Bob froze. It was all coming back to him. Wilfred was standing beside him on the corner of 59th and Strauss. An icy, driving rain was falling, and neither of them had an umbrella. ”
• For longer works, such as novels, you can also separate flashbacks into their own chapters, alternating with chapters set in the present timeline.

• For example, instead of saying, “Bertha remembered the time when she fell off her bike going down a hill,” you could write, “Bertha remembered the feeling of her blood rushing to her temples, the tightness in the pit of her stomach. One moment she was flying down the hill at what felt like an impossible speed. The next, she was in the air, and the hard asphalt was rushing up to meet her.”

Using Flashbacks in Screenplays

• For example, maybe your character is afraid of water. You could flash back to a terrifying moment a few years earlier when she nearly drowned.
• A flashback can also reveal key information about the plot. For example, perhaps your character is a detective at a crime scene. She might see a key piece of evidence, such as a hat left behind by the suspect, and then flash back to a memory of seeing a man wearing the same hat.

• Even if it’s not spelled out explicitly for the audience, you can indicate when the flashback takes place in the script (e.g., after the scene heading, you might say, “It is 10 years earlier. Julio is 17.”)

• For example, you might start the flashback with a scene heading like: “FLASHBACK—EXT. SIGMUND’S CHILDHOOD HOME, DAY.”
• Label the end of the flashback, too. You could use a scene heading such as “BACK TO PRESENT DAY—INT. SIGMUND’S DINING ROOM, NIGHT.”

• Include superimposed text to appear on the screen that clarifies the timeframe of the flashback (e.g., “SUPER: Esmond’s 30th birthday, 10 years earlier.”).
• Describe differences in the appearance of the characters and/or setting that indicate the passage of time. For example, if the main action takes place in summer, a snowy backdrop will clearly indicate that the flashback takes place in a different season.

• For example, your character might see a trout on ice in the grocery store and stop to look at it. The scene then transitions to a memory of a fishing trip where she caught a gigantic trout.

• “Martha puts the trout into her cooler. She stares at the gigantic fish on the ice, awed by her catch. Faintly, she hears someone say, ‘May I help you, ma’am?’” BACK TO PRESENT DAY—INT. GROCERY STORE. Martha looks up from the fish on ice behind the glass of the display counter. The GROCER is smiling at her, waiting for an answer.”

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• ↑ https://self-publishingschool.com/flashbacks/
• ↑ https://www.writermag.com/improve-your-writing/fiction/dos-donts-flashback/
• ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqHs2UkXufA
• ↑ https://literaryterms.net/flashback/
• ↑ https://www.pala.ac.uk/uploads/2/5/1/0/25105678/rong2011.pdf
• ↑ http://www.scriptologist.com/Magazine/Formatting/Flashbacks/flashbacks.html
• ↑ https://scriptmag.com/screenplays/ask-the-expert-all-about-flashbacks

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How to Write Epic Flashbacks: 13 Powerful Writing Tips

Embark on a thrilling journey through time as you master the art of crafting epic flashbacks in your stories. Unleash the power of the past to captivate your readers, evoke emotions, and reveal hidden truths. Are you ready to discover the secrets behind creating seamless, immersive, and impactful flashbacks that will leave your readers spellbound? Dive in and let the adventure begin!

What is a Flashback in a Story?

A flashback is a scene or sequence in a story that transports the reader back in time to reveal important information about a character or event. Flashbacks can be a powerful tool for deepening your story, provide backstory, or reveal pivotal moments from a character’s past.

Types of Flashbacks

Flashbacks come in various forms and structures, each with its unique function and effect on the story. Understanding these different types of flashbacks can help writers select the most suitable approach for their narrative. The following are some of the most common types:

• Straight Break Flashback: This type of flashback involves a sudden shift from the present timeline to a past event. The scene transition is often marked by a line break, a change in formatting, or a clear signal in the text that the story is moving to a different time.
• Dream Sequences: Dream sequences are flashbacks that occur within a character’s dreams or nightmares. They can reveal significant events or emotions from the past, providing readers with a deeper understanding of the character’s psyche.
• Memories: Memories are triggered by a character’s thoughts or conversations. As characters reflect on their past experiences or share stories with others, readers gain insights into the characters’ backgrounds and motivations.
• Foreshadowing Flashbacks: These are brief glimpses of past events that serve to hint at future occurrences in the story. By offering subtle clues about what’s to come, foreshadowing flashbacks can create suspense and intrigue, keeping readers engaged.
• Framed Narratives: In a framed narrative, a character within the story shares a past event or anecdote, effectively creating a story within a story. This technique allows the author to present flashbacks as firsthand accounts from characters, offering an additional layer of perspective to the narrative.
• Epistolary Flashbacks: Epistolary flashbacks use letters, diary entries, or other written documents to reveal events from the past. This can provide readers with an intimate and personal look into a character’s thoughts, emotions, and experiences.

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Why Use Flashbacks in Your Story?

Flashbacks serve as a powerful narrative tool, enabling writers to enrich their stories in various ways. By incorporating them, authors can achieve multiple objectives, such as enhancing character development, revealing important information, building suspense, and strengthening the overall narrative structure .

How to Write an Epic Flashback

Crafting an epic flashback requires careful planning and a thoughtful approach to ensure it adds value to the story and engages the reader. Following these tips can help you create a powerful and effective flashback:

1. Pinpoint the Perfect Trigger

Select a suitable trigger in the present timeline to initiate the flashback. This can be a sensory cue, an object, or an event that reminds the character of a past experience and smoothly transitions the reader into the past.

2. Add Sensory Details

Incorporate sensory details to make the flashback vivid and immersive. By engaging the reader’s senses, you create a more memorable and emotionally resonant experience.

3. Make it Relevant & Necessary

Ensure the flashback is relevant to the main narrative and adds value to the story. The information revealed should be essential to the reader’s understanding or contribute to character development

4. Reveal Backstory

Use flashbacks to reveal important backstory elements that enrich the main narrative and provide context for the reader.

5. Develop Characters

Flashbacks can offer insights into a character’s motivations, relationships, and personal growth, deepening the reader’s connection to the story.

6. Unleash the Power of Dialogues

Incorporate dialogue to bring the flashback to life and create dynamic interactions between the characters within it.

7. Set Up Foreshadowing

Strategically use flashbacks to foreshadow future events, building suspense and intrigue in the story.

8. Keep It Brief

Maintain the flashback’s brevity, focusing on essential details and avoiding unnecessary information that might disrupt the main narrative’s pacing.

9. Choose a Consistent Tense

Maintain a consistent tense throughout the flashback, ensuring a smooth and coherent reading experience.

10. Use a Distinct Narrative Voice

Differentiate the flashback from the main narrative by employing a distinct voice or style, making it easy for readers to distinguish between past and present.

11. Ensuring Chronological Clarity

Clarify the flashback’s timeline to avoid confusion, particularly when multiple flashbacks are involved.

12. Avoid the Info Dumping

Reveal information gradually and organically, rather than overwhelming the reader with excessive backstory at once.

13. Balance Your Flashback Frequency

Utilize flashbacks sparingly and strategically to prevent disrupting the flow of the main narrative.

How Do You Start a Flashback?

Starting a flashback effectively is essential to ensure a smooth transition for the reader from the present narrative to the past. First, you will have to identify an appropriate trigger that naturally reminds the character of a past event. This can be a sensory experience, an object, or a specific incident in the story . Make sure to establish a clear connection between the trigger and the flashback, so readers can easily follow the shift in time.

What Words Signal the Start of the Flashback?

Using words or phrases that signal the beginning of a flashback can help alert readers to the shift in time, allowing them to prepare for the transition mentally. Here are ten example words and phrases that can be used to signal the start of a flashback:

• As if transported back in time…
• Reminiscent of…
• Memories flooded back…
• It all came rushing back…
• In an instant, she was back…
• She couldn’t help but remember…
• The past resurfaced…
• Once upon a time…

Incorporating these words and phrases into your writing can help create a seamless transition into the flashback, ensuring a smooth and engaging reading experience for your audience.

3 Great Flashback Examples

Literary works abound with masterfully crafted flashbacks that enhance the narrative and captivate readers. The following examples showcase the power of flashbacks in storytelling, inspiring writers to explore the potential of this narrative device in their own work.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban , by J.K. Rowling

In the third installment of the beloved Harry Potter series, Rowling employs flashbacks through the Pensieve, a magical object that allows characters to relive memories. These flashbacks unveil crucial plot points, offer insights into the enigmatic Sirius Black, and reveal hidden layers of the wizarding world. Rowling’s skillful use of flashbacks not only adds depth to the narrative but also enhances the emotional impact of the story. ( Learn More )

To Kill a Mockingbird , by Harper Lee

Harper Lee’s classic novel takes the reader on an emotional journey into the past, as Scout Finch reminisces about her childhood experiences in the racially divided town of Maycomb. Through a series of evocative flashbacks, Lee explores themes of injustice, prejudice, and moral growth. These flashbacks serve to deepen the reader’s connection to the characters and underscore the novel’s timeless messages. ( Learn More )

The Great Gatsby , by F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic work, The Great Gatsby , utilizes flashbacks to unravel the enigmatic figure of Jay Gatsby and his tumultuous past. Through these glimpses into Gatsby’s history, Fitzgerald reveals the character’s dreams, obsessions, and ultimate downfall. The flashbacks serve to heighten the emotional resonance of the story, making Gatsby’s tragic fate all the more poignant for the reader. ( Learn More )

7 Common Mistakes When Using Flashbacks

Incorporating flashbacks into your narrative can be a powerful storytelling tool, but it’s essential to avoid common pitfalls. Here are some frequent flashback mistakes and how to steer clear of them:

1. Overusing Flashbacks

• Mistake: Excessive use of flashbacks can disrupt the flow of your narrative, making it confusing or tedious for the reader.
• Solution: Use them sparingly and ensure each one of them serves a specific purpose, such as character development or revealing crucial information.

2. Poor Transitions

• Mistake: Abrupt or unclear transitions between the present and past can leave readers disoriented.
• Solution: Smoothly transition in and out of characters’ memories by using clear signals, such as specific words, phrases, or formatting changes.

3. Lengthy Flashbacks

• Mistake: Overly long flashbacks can disrupt the pacing of your main narrative, potentially losing the reader’s interest.
• Solution: Keep flashbacks concise, focusing on essential details and avoiding unnecessary information that might weigh down the story.

4. Lacking Integration with the Main Narrative

• Mistake: Introducing flashbacks that feel disjointed from the main narrative, resulting in a fractured and disconnected story.
• Solution: Seamlessly weave flashbacks into the story by ensuring they are well-placed, relevant, and enhance the overall narrative structure.

5. Complex or Confusing Structure

• Mistake: Presenting flashbacks in a convoluted or confusing manner, making it difficult for readers to follow the story.
• Solution: Simplify their structure and maintain a clear, linear progression within the flashback itself. If using multiple flashbacks, ensure they are easy to follow and differentiate.

6. Using Flashbacks as an Expository Crutch

• Mistake: Relying on flashbacks to reveal excessive backstory or explain plot points, rather than integrating this information organically into the main narrative.
• Solution: Use them to supplement the main narrative, and avoid overloading them with information. Instead, reveal backstory and plot details through a combination of dialogue, action, and description.

7. Lack of Emotional Impact

• Mistake: Writing flashbacks that lack emotional depth or fail to evoke a strong response from readers.
• Solution: Focus on the emotional aspects of the character’s past experiences, using sensory details and strong character reactions to create an immersive and emotionally resonant journey for the reader.

By being mindful of these common flashback mistakes, you can ensure your use of this narrative device is effective and contributes to a compelling, engaging story.

How Long Should a Flashback Be?

The length of a flashback can vary depending on the purpose it serves in your story and the pacing of your narrative. However, it’s crucial to avoid overly lengthy flashbacks that could disrupt the flow of your story.

Generally, a flashback should not be longer than about 300 to 600 words , which is approximately 1 to 2 pages. This range allows for enough detail to convey its purpose while maintaining reader engagement and preserving the momentum of the main narrative.

How to Format a Flashback?

Formatting flashbacks consistently and clearly can help readers easily identify when they’re transitioning between the present and past. Here are some general formatting guidelines and suggestions for flashbacks:

• Line breaks or separators: Insert a line break, an empty line, or a visual separator (e.g., three asterisks) before and after the flashback to indicate a shift in time.
• Italics: Some writers choose to italicize the entire flashback to differentiate it from the main narrative. However, this can be challenging for readers if the flashback is lengthy, as italics are usually a bit harder to read than regular fonts. Use this technique sparingly and only for short memories.
• Transition words or phrases: Use words or phrases that signal the beginning and end of a flashback, such as “remembered,” “long ago,” or “back in time.”
• Tense changes: Maintain a consistent tense within the narration of the past events (typically past perfect), and switch back to the main narrative tense when the flashback ends.

Frequently Asked Questions

When to use a flashback.

Use a flashback when you need to reveal important information from the past, develop a character, or create suspense.

Can I Start My Story With a Flashback?

Yes, you can start your story with a flashback, but make sure it serves a clear purpose and engages the reader from the beginning.

Can You Write a Flashback Within a Flashback?

While it’s possible to write a flashback within a flashback, it can be confusing for the reader. Use this technique sparingly and ensure clarity in your narrative.

Flashback vs. Backstory: What’s the Difference?

A flashback is a scene or sequence that transports the reader back in time, while backstory refers to a character’s history or events that occurred prior to the main narrative. Flashbacks are one way to reveal backstory in a story.

Can I Use a Flashback to Reveal Information?

Yes, they can be an effective way to reveal information, as long as the information is relevant and contributes to the development of the story or its characters.

Can I Use a Flashback in Any Genre of Writing?

Flashbacks can be used in virtually any genre of writing, from literary fiction to science fiction, mystery, and romance. The key is to ensure this technique is appropriate for the story and contributes to its overall development.

Final Thoughts

As our voyage through the realm of flashbacks comes to an end, you are now equipped with the knowledge and skills to weave captivating and powerful memories into your stories. Carry these 13 potent writing tips with you, and watch your characters come to life as their pasts unfold before your readers’ eyes.

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How to write a flashback.

March 11, 2018 by Randy Ingermanson 14 Comments

in Craft , Fiction Writing

How do you write a flashback without confusing your reader? Aren’t flashbacks bad? Don’t they screw up your story? Or can they make your story better?

Alexa posted this question  on my “ Ask A Question For My Blog ” page:

How can I write a flashback scene of my protagonist without the reader getting lost?Thanks in advance

Randy sez: Knowing how to write a flashback is crucial for every novelist. But knowing why to write a flashback may be even more important.

Aren’t Flashbacks Bad?

Some people say that flashbacks are bad and you shouldn’t write them. It’s worth asking why anyone would say that.

A flashback is a scene that you show in your story in real-time, but which happened in the past. The fact that it’s shown in real-time is good. You’re not showing it in narrative summary or exposition. You’re playing it out like a movie in your reader’s head.

So where’s the harm? Why would anyone complain about that?

The only real issue is that a flashback is part of the back-story of your novel. So you’re stopping your front-story cold so you can tell some other story that happened in the past.

That’s a problem if your reader doesn’t yet care about the front-story. Then you run the risk of boring your reader. She might close your book. She might never pick it up again. Then she loses out on finishing your story. And you lose out on a reader.

But if your reader does care about the front-story, it’s a whole different game. When your reader cares about the front-story, she’s willing to stay with you through a bit of back-story, as long as it’s directly relevant to the front-story.

And back-story is often very relevant to your front-story. Your characters don’t just plop into the world on page 1 without any history. They’ve spent their whole lives preparing to live this story you’re telling. They’ve learned things. They’ve built up a personality. And they’ve been damaged by other people.

Any of those could be relevant to your front-story.

A flashback gives you, the author, the opportunity to let your reader experience that back-story in the same way that your character can experience it at any time—as a memory.

So a flashback is good , and it’s often the very best way to inject that back-story into your reader’s brain.

But you just want to be careful to make sure your reader is truly hooked on the front-story before you spring a flashback on her. A common rule of thumb is to not show any backstory in the first fifty pages of your novel, although you can violate that rule if you’re good enough.

So How Do You Write That Flashback?

A flashback has three parts:

• The segue out of the present and into the past
• The backstory scene itself
• The segue out of the backstory and into the present

Those two segues are the key to solving the problem Alexa asked about. You’ll confuse your reader for sure if you just switch straight to the backstory with no explanation.

You have a lot of options on how to do that segue. In the Harry Potter books, for example, Harry experiences a number of flashbacks involving other characters when he looks into the Pensieve, a magical device that holds people’s memories. The Pensieve is the link on the way into the flashback and on the way back out. That was a very effective way to do it.

The more usual way to do it is to have the character begin remembering something. Then have a scene break and switch to showing the memory as a flashback. At the end of the flashback, have another scene break and return to the character.

As an example , here’s how Ken Follett starts a flashback in The Man From St. Petersburg , a historical suspense novel about a Russian anarchist in the summer of 1914 who’s been sent to London to kill a Russian envoy. He knows that the envoy is negotiating an alliance between England and Russia that will drag Mother Russia into the coming war, and he wants to prevent it.

Our hero is Feliks , and we meet him about twenty pages into the novel. He’s on a train to London, admiring the view. Feliks has loads of attitude, and we pick up that attitude quickly. And then we segue smoothly into a flashback from a few weeks earlier:

And in Geneva, he had made the decision which brought him to England. He recalled the meeting. He had almost missed it…

There’s a scene break , and then the flashback begins with the phrase: He almost missed the meeting.

The flashback tells about a meeting of anarchists who’ve learned that Prince Orlov has been sent to England to negotiate an alliance that will get millions of Russian peasants killed in a stupid and senseless war. The meeting goes on for quite a while, with all sorts of suggestions. At the end of it, Feliks tells the group he knows how to prevent the war. He’s going to London and he’s going to kill Orlov.

The scene ends , and in the next chapter, Feliks is in London. Ken Follett doesn’t even need to segue back to the present, because the end of the chapter signals the end of the flashback. There’s no confusion.

The key phrase  is the two-sentence transition just before the flashback: He recalled the meeting. He had almost missed it…

Those two sentences , plus the scene break, tell the reader to expect a flashback.

This flashback is very recent and it’s critical to the story. It explains why Feliks has come to London. And it radically reorients the story…

The first twenty pages of the novel have introduced us to Lord Walden, the Englishman who will be hosting Prince Orlov and negotiating for the English. So up till the point where we meet Feliks, we’ve had a rather conventional story about a dull political negotiation. Once we meet Feliks and see his flashback, we have a much more interesting story, because we see that this dull political negotiation is about to get millions of innocent people killed. And the only man who can stop it is a Russian anarchist. That’s a nice twist and it makes a great story. It becomes an even better story when you learn that Feliks knows the wife of Lord Walden. Or rather, he knew her when she was a young and wild Russian aristocrat growing up in St. Petersburg. He knew her very, very well, until the night he was arrested and she was married off to an Englishman. All of which the reader will learn through a series of vivid flashbacks.

So if you need a flashback, it’s simple:  Write a sentence or two of transition, then do a scene break, then write the flashback, and then do another scene break. If you need another short transition to get back into the present, write one.

If you’ve got a question  you’d like me to answer in public on this blog, hop on over to my “ Ask A Question For My Blog ” page and submit your question. I’ll answer the ones I can, but no guarantees. There are only so many hours in the day.

March 12, 2018 at 12:39 pm

Thank you for this post. It’s most helpful because I deal with a LOT of characters, coming and going, and they all have a history. Much of it relevant to the book present. I struggle with keeping it to necessary flashbacks, though I’d not exactly thought to do what you suggest. This is great! The best part is it won’t become an info dump to leave me with hours of cleanup…Well, maybe only a few minutes of work? Much nicer.

Randy, as an artist I can’t resist the idea of a triangle-to-snowflake visual, so I’ll designing one as a mindmap of sorts for the series I’m working on, to mat and hang on my office wall. It’s challenge and you are an incredible inspiration.

October 4, 2020 at 6:38 am

My main character arrives at law school. After 2 pages of solid introduction and description of him, I want the reader to know that he used to be homeless but a famous lawyer helped him get off the street and into law school. What do you think about using a flashback to show how this came about after only 2 pages? Thanks, stay safe.

October 4, 2020 at 11:41 am

A flashback so early in the book is almost certainly doomed to lose your reader, unless you have unusually spectacular skills as a novelist. If you do, then go ahead and do it. I never say no to a genius.

If you’re not certain you are that one-in-a-million author who can pull it off, then I’d recommend you communicate this information in dialogue. There are billions of ways to do it, and you can easily find one that will keep your reader engaged.

December 2, 2020 at 8:58 pm

My female protagonist is about to meet the male protagonist. But she won’t really know that she already knows him from childhood. I thought to start off my book with the female protagonist walking around and having a flash back of someone she used to know… Do you think it’s good idea to have a flash back like on the first page? Because, I think it will help the readers understand a little bit more of where both the protagonists stand.. What do you say?

June 25, 2021 at 9:12 am

Ah finally how to do it instead of the usual articles saying “Flashback BAD don’t do it.” Or even worse “Flash back back no kinda good here’s how bla-bla (never shows how just says why they suck again.)”

Seriously frustrating. It’s another tool and should be treated as such. Thank you for our help, I did a merge of what was shown here and had it first start with them talking (the main pov finally deciding to trust her new friends more.)

——————-

A soft whiff of pine and mountain air came through the screens, it for the moment felt so much like home. She clutched the fabric, the memories hidden away for so long… I can’t put this off any longer. Trust, just have to jump in. She pulled in two deep breaths and began.

Mommy and Daddy always had that scent lingering on them when they came back from their missions. It wasn’t fair.

And I end it with:

Someone screamed followed by footfalls. A soft touch of a blanket, as it wrapped around.

A soft furry touch on her back. “It’s me.” Han had come over the soft fur of his arm around her back.

I think it still needs work but am tying to make damn sure readers know it’s a flashback and trying like hell to make it seamless.

(I didn’t do the whole flash back in that chapter a few paragraphs then found a stopping point as they need to get moving.) I’m thinking next time i find a natural rest break in the story to give a little here and there in dialoge and then another short backstory. I don’t want to slow things down to much or ack.. jar readers out of the book.

Still I’ve read a lot of big name author books and never had a problem with any backstory as the writer waits a while before putting any in.

Slightly off topic:

It really irks me when articles are all cookie cutter and can’t even try thinking about backstory but instead bash the hell out of them with out even thinking about all the books they’ve read. I’m on a few online writing platforms and the reality is readers want back story (just not in huge blocks) the only thing that seems to set them off is when a writer fails with the plot, makes boring characters, bad grammar or flat dialogue. Backstory? They get ticked if there isn’t any!

I feel that the writing articles are really out of touch and should offer both options (Backstory usually suck this is why! Backstory can be done -if you’re careful- here’s how…) sure new writers are going to much things up, GOOD then they learn… just give the rest of us and damn guide.

Anyway. thank you I really appreciated the help.

June 26, 2021 at 2:22 pm

Thank you! So I’m writing this book but I want a flashback in it (it’s not really a flashback it happened like two seconds ago) but this is still only the introduction to the book. Ex: He stared at his bloody hands, how did this happen? Where did it all go wrong? Perhaps… it was when he first started going to his new school. Yeah, that was it. Idk if I should put that in though… thoughts?

August 2, 2022 at 3:14 am

Thank you for this post. It’s most helpful because I deal with a LOT of characters, coming and going, and they all have a history. Much of it relevant to the book present. I struggle with keeping it to necessary flashbacks, though I’d not exactly thought to do what you suggest. This is great! The best part is it won’t become an info dump to leave me with hours of cleanup…Well, maybe only a few minutes of work? Much nicer.

Randy, as an artist I can’t resist the idea of a triangle-to-snowflake visual, so I’ll designing one as a mindmap of sorts for the series I’m working on, to mat and hang on my office wall. It’s challenge and you are an incredible inspiration.

August 29, 2022 at 10:21 am

I’m into a memoir as a baby boomer growing up in the sixties. My dad suffers with World War Two stresses and copes with alcohol. I want use flashbacks of my dad’s past to explain our conflicts. The flashbacks occur before my boyhood understanding. Example: he is a newspaper editor. The family takes him breakfast after he has worked all night. He was asleep with his head on his typewriter. I was 8. I now know he was pasted out. I don’t want to make him evil in our many conflicts now that I understand.

September 12, 2023 at 12:25 pm

I’ve got this character, Chase, who is arguably the most important character in my multi-book team story. The problem is, while his personal inciting incident (a car/meteor crash that’s significant to the master plotline) happens in book #2, his story doesn’t dovetail with the team (and therefore give the reader a reason to care about him) until he begins interacting with the team (and eventually replaces their heroic suicide) in book #4 or #5. Not only is this flirting with novella length, but Chase is the only one who was physically there thru the whole thing, and large chunks of his memory are lost due to the crash trauma or unformed in the first place due to drugged stupor/being unconscious.

March 19, 2024 at 8:36 am

This is the transition that takes the reader from the present story into the flashback. As discussed before, the webpage will likely emphasize using triggers like sensory details, emotions, or objects. The Backstory Scene: This is the main part of the flashback, where you depict the past event or scene the character remembers.

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Writing Flashbacks: How To Make Them Work In Fiction

• by Paige Duke
• September 8, 2014
• 28 Comments

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The conventional wisdom about flashbacks goes something like this: use them sparingly, if at all. It’s good advice, because a mishandled flashback can stunt the flow of your narrative, lose a reader’s interest, harm suspension of disbelief ,  create confusion , or cause any number of other problems .

But, don’t be discouraged, flashbacks can work, and they’re worth the risk; a well-constructed scene can add texture to your story, deliver much-needed information to your reader, and provide insight into your characters ’ motives.

Anatomy of a flashback

In The Hunger Games , Suzanne Collins uses a flashback early on to establish the scant but essential backstory between Katniss and Peeta, two of the book’s most central figures. Throughout the story, their relationship fuels both plot and character development , and this moment acts as such a memorable beginning that readers never quite forget it, despite the couple’s amazing and terrifying journey .

Creating a strong framework

Because a flashback halts the forward motion of the narrative, the reader must care about the character before you throw the car in reverse. Collins’ flashback comes in Chapter 2, which might seem early , but we’re already hooked into the action of the story and tied to the fate of the character. Because Katniss has just volunteered to take her sister’s place in the Games — a death sentence for sure. And she’s about to find out who else she’ll have to face in the arena.

Peeta Mellark! Oh, no, I think. Not him… I try to convince myself it doesn’t matter. Peeta Mellark and I are not friends. Not even neighbors. We don’t speak. Our only real interaction happened years ago. He’s probably forgotten it. But I haven’t and I know I never will…

The first sentences

There are two things to note about a strong first sentence of a flashback. First, it’s a transition, so it needs to be strategic. Whether it’s smooth or abrupt, seamless or jarring, it should be that way intentionally. Maybe this flashback comes to your character in a natural way when a sense of smell triggers the memory. Or maybe they’re thrust back into a tense and painful moment in time, caught completely off guard . The effect is different, so use this transition point to full advantage.

Second, signal the reader that you’re going back in time ; if you fail to do this, readers may not even recognize the switch and could be confused. This signal is achieved by changing the verb tense . If your narrative is in past tense, the first sentence of the flashback should be in past perfect. This grammatical change is essential; it tells your reader that they’re going back in time to a specific moment. You only have to maintain it for one or two sentences, and then you can go back to simple past tense so that the reader experiences it in real time.

If you’re writing in present tense, the shift goes from present to simple past. That’s how it’s handled in our example from The Hunger Games . Notice that the opening line of this scene may not seem a remarkable transition sentence; but in the context (unfortunately, too long to post here) it serves as world building . For several paragraphs , Collins develops the bleary, hopeless world of District 12, in which Katniss is failing even to find food for her starving mother and sister, she’s tried selling threadbare clothes for a few coins, but to no avail. It’s the stark stage upon which Peeta is soon to appear.

On the afternoon of my encounter with Peeta Mellark, the rain was falling in relentless icy sheets… I passed the baker’s, the smell of fresh bread was so overwhelming I felt dizzy… I lifted the lid to the baker’s trash bin and found it spotlessly, heartlessly bare. Suddenly a voice was screaming at me and I looked up to see the baker’s wife, telling me to move on and did I want her to call the Peacekeepers and how sick she was of having those brats from the Seam pawing through her trash. The words were ugly and I had no defense. As I carefully replaced the lid and backed away, I noticed him, a boy with blond hair peering out from behind his mother’s back.

The middle action

The meat of a flashback is storytelling , but as with the transition sentence, it should serve a specific purpose. Every word, every line, should be telling your reader essential information about your characters , their world , and the emotional landscape that formed who they have become. Otherwise, it’s a missed opportunity.

Similarly, the way it’s written is just as important as what’s written. If you want your readers to indulge this stalling of the forward motion of the narrative, you need to engage them. An effective way of doing this is to write it as an active scene , put them into the moment rather than summarizing it. In short, show them, don’t tell them . You’ll give them essential information and tie them more strongly to the plight of your character. Look how much new information — about the past, present, and future of both characters — we can glean from this middle section of Collins’ flashback scene:

His mother went back into the bakery, grumbling, but he must have been watching me as… the realization that I’d have nothing to take home had finally sunk in… There was a clatter in the bakery and I heard the woman screaming again and the sound of a blow, and I vaguely wondered what was going on. Feet sloshed toward me through the mud… It was the boy. In his arms, he carried two large loaves of bread that must have fallen into the fire because the crusts were scorched black… The boy never even glanced my way, but I was watching him. Because of the bread, because of the red weal that stood out on his cheekbone. What had she hit him with? My parents never hit us. I couldn’t even imagine it. The boy took one look back to the bakery as if checking that the coast was clear, then… he threw a loaf of bread in my direction. The second quickly followed, and he sloshed back to the bakery, closing the kitchen door tightly behind him… It didn’t occur to me until the next morning that the boy might have burned the bread on purpose. Might have dropped the loaves into the flames, knowing it meant being punished, and then delivered them to me.

The last sentences

The last sentences of the flashback mark another important transition. As with the earlier transition, be strategic in the way you bring your reader back to the main storyline . If it’s abrupt, it should be that way for a reason — is she startled back to the present? What did she miss? If it’s gradual, easing the character and reader back to the present, what is the lingering emotion? Does she feel different in the same space she inhabited before the memory?

Remember your grammar shift from the first transition too; once the flashback ends, you’ll return to the verb tense of the main story.

We ate slices of bread for breakfast and headed to school. It was as if spring had come overnight. Warm sweet air. Fluffy clouds… To this day, I can never shake the connection between this boy, Peeta Mellark, and the bread that gave me hope…

Aftereffects

We’re not quite finished yet. Perhaps the most important consideration is how the flashback affects the reader’s understanding of the story and the character’s motivations. Did it cause the reader to reinterpret what they know of the character so far? Will it inform their view of the character going forward? Whatever the effect, be sure it’s there — whether stated or implied — and that you can identify it as the story goes on.

I feel like I owe him something, and I hate owing people. Maybe if I had thanked him at some point, I’d be feeling less conflicted now. I thought about it a couple of times, but the opportunity never seemed to present itself. And now it never will. Because we’re going to be thrown into an arena to fight to the death. Exactly how am I supposed to work in a thank-you in there? Somehow it just won’t seem sincere if I’m trying to slit his throat.

A flashback scene can be a great tool for setting the stage of your story, informing readers, and taking them deeper into the hearts and minds of your characters. Examine the way you’re using flashbacks in your writing; make the most of each element, and you’ll be on your way to constructing strong scenes that captivate your readers’ attention and draw them deeply into the journey of your characters.

How did this exercise help you reevaluate a flashback in your work-in-progress? What did you find surprising here that you’ll incorporate into future scenes? Let me know in the comments. Or, for more great info on flashbacks, try  The 4 Decisions That Will Help You Write An Amazing Flashback ,  Nail Your Character’s Backstory With This One Simple Tip  and  Passing Time Is The Secret To Improving Your Story .

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28 thoughts on “Writing Flashbacks: How To Make Them Work In Fiction”

Love this article. I have to read Hunger Games, I’ve only seen the movie. Best

Hi boostwriter,

Glad you liked the article! I hope you do get a chance to read The Hunger Games trilogy, it’s a great read.

You really should read it. I mean, not to sound cliched, but the book really is even better than the movie.

Such a grand article! Now I won’t be conflicted in writing flashbacks in my writing class. Hunger games sound good, my friend told me about it but I thought it was some kind of clash of clan or chronicle of a throne but now I know well that it is what it’s name depict. Hope I get a chance to read it’s hopefully mystical words

Thanks for your kind words. I think flashbacks are such a great tool when handled skillfully. I’m a big fan of The Hunger Games series, so I hope you like it. Happy writing!

Thank you for this on chapter 30 the story finally had the right setting and pace for a flash back. Well chapter 30 in wattpad probably more like chapter 5 for 10 in normal book Wattpads chapters have to be kept short no more then 2k words as 80% if the readers read on their iphones.) I’m going to ‘finish’ the chapter first and then go back to where I summarized the past events and do some showing of what happened. Writing is joyI wish I’d have started years ago. It’s hard but well worth the effort. I’m getting better at comma placement but still need some help if anyone has the time I’d appreciate if a few test sentences that I can try to fix were sent to my email: vaporlight AT aol DOT com Thank you if you do.

Hi. Interesting article. If one’s story is written in the past tense, what do you think of flashbacks written in the present tense? My protagonist suffers from PTSD and I am using flashbacks to expose the trauma he suffered. Thanks. Wanjoo

I think the technique of switching from past tense to present tense for a flashback can work very well. A flashback should pull readers in and make them feel some sense of urgency and immediacy, and using present tense is a great way to do that. You just want to be sure you keep a sense of consistency with the narrator, but I think it can work beautiful if done right. Thanks for your excellent question, and best of luck to you!

This was really helpful. Thanks a bunch. Just wondering about a few things. What do you think about doing a flashback chapter/chapters and how would you go about doing a flashback if your story is set in the present and the flashback is several thousand years in the past (for example, the main character is an ancient vampire reminiscing about how they met an old friend/lover for the first time)?

I’m so glad you found this article helpful. I think the idea of using a flashback chapter can work well if used intentionally. The biggest concern is that you don’t want to slow down the forward momentum of the story. For example, a situation in which the flashback chapter or chapters serve to fill in essential backstory or to impart missing information withheld from the main sections of the story can be very successful. The example you describe sounds like it could work well in this regard, as it would be relaying backstory necessary to developing a relationship that’s central to the main story thread. My one caution is to keep to the essentials. An extended flashback scene that strays too far from the necessary details really can slow the pace of the story. Best of luck to you with your book!

Hi Paige Excellent article, thank you (I’ve devoured most of standoutbooks and it is truly brilliant). What are your thoughts on having a ‘flashback’ (to an extent) as an opener, such as a prologue or opening chapter, where the rest of the story is a continuous present tense timeline.

For example, I am writing a story in first person present, but want to have an accident in childhood affect the character in a number of ways which pan out over the story. Could an account of the accident in past tense work as a prologue? Or would it prevent the reader from forming an attachment to the character in the present day?

Thank you Thom

Excellent question. I think a flashback as a prologue could work really well. I would just say, though, unless you’re trying to keep something hidden from the reader, you want as much continuity as possible between the prologue and first chapters, so just be sure to maintain a strong narrative voice from your protagonist so readers can make the jump from past to present. Also, time stamps can be helpful in that instance too if it still feels a bit unclear. Good luck, Thom! This sounds really interesting.

Dear paige, thanks so much,this has helped me with my wrighting!!! yours truly chels.

I’m so glad you found this article to be helpful. Wishing you all the best with your writing.

Hi Paige, I tried to follow the path to learning the verb tense of leading into a flash back, but was led here by the link. There was no reference to writing the opening or closing of a flashback with the correct verb tense. Can you help? //www.standoutbooks.com/improve-your-writing/ was the link. No reference to flashbacks here.

You’re right that the linked article doesn’t have additional information about flashbacks. The link was included because the other article expounds on the idea of verb tense and the way it can change the meaning and impact of a passage. If you’d still like to know more about changing verb tense to introduce a flashback, that’s something we could explore in more detail in a future blog article.

Thank you for your advice! I would like to ask you something, if that’s okay with you. So I am currently writing a book about a killer with supernatural powers. I have reached chapter 19, which happens in the present and we follow the Main Character and his life. So, the chapters 21-25, I have planned on using them as chapters for flashbacks, so we can learn (or get hints) on how the supernatural powers of the characters appeared, and the backstory of the MC, his past that shaped him on who he is today. Those flashbacks that will probably extend up to 15,000 words, are vital for the readers to get a full perspective of what the MC is harboring and why he is like that, the reason he chose to become a killer. The book is part of a duology, but I want to clear some things up on the first book. My question to you is, will that kind of approach work, or should I try something else in order to expose his past? Thank you very much, Agapi

Great question. I like the idea of using flashbacks to impart backstory. My advice to authors about how to develop backstory is usually to use a combination of flashback, exposition, and dialogue and to dole out bits of the backstory over time so that it feels like a well-rounded and natural progression of the story instead of an info dump. I’d be curious to know why this information is coming so late in your story, since it seems like it’s central to your MC’s development. But I do think your idea of using flashback to impart this information could work nicely.

Thank you for your answer and suggestions! To answer your question, I must say that I have tried to use your suggestion in a previous book of mine and it actually worked pretty well, but with this one I am trying to make it all in once so it will have an larger impact. So I will ramble a bit if that’s okay with you in order to make you understand. So as I mentioned beforehand, the MC is a killer with supernatural powers. We follow his life and what he does every day until a gifted girl( a girl with powers) escapes the underground labs that the scientists use in order to experiment on them so they can gain control on them. Probably something like making their own army of indestructible beings and being able to control them anytime, in case they rebel. The MC was the first one to be a success, or the scientists think so, so he is in charge of finding new gifted and killing any person that tries to oppose them. Back to the girl that escaped. She has connections to a group that has recently started to oppose the group the MC is head of and generally the scientists. While the MC tries to kill everyone in that group his interest is also sparked by the girl. Now, the MC does not show his feelings but he loses control of himself when he uses his powers(goes on a killing spree etc) and by the end of ch. 18, he is a depressed, paranoid person, a bit bipolar that tries to kill himself by slicing his own skin. So, the reader is in a constant curiousness as of why he is like that. At ch. 19 the girl and the MC meet again, the girl actually helping him and saving him from certain death, I will not say the reasons as it will take one huge paragraph to do it).She demands explainations and something sparks his memories. Then ch. 20-24 follow. Ch. 20 is when he was young and hints at how he got his powers. Ch. 21 is the dark past that made him like that, and how he was abused by his uncle. Ch. 22 is when he ran away from home and lived on the streets almost dying. Ch. 23 is when the scientists found him and experimented on him. And ch. 24 is how he became the leader of the group and his first mission that began that endless chain of murders. Then from ch.25 the story continues on from the present when the MC is talking with the girl. I don’t know whether or not this will make sense, but I feel that if these chapters were scattered around the book, or if they were just a small paragraph in another chapter they would lose the meaning they hold. Maybe that is just my opinion, but I don’t know whether this will work or not. As of why it comes so late, the MC is in a constant state of numbness and when even the smallest memory resurfaces he keeps it locked in the back of his mind. Now, that the girl has saved him from killing himself he is in a vulnerable state, in a state of mind that he cannot reject his feelings and memories so they all come back in the form of large chunks of information, while the reader is aware that he is telling everything to the girl from the way ch.19 ends. Even though it is in the form of huge flashbacks, taking up almost the 1/4 of the story, I believe that they are in the right place and at the right length.

Now that I have explained it a little better (I hope), what is your opinion on it? Will it work, or should I scatter the chapters all over the book? Thank you, Agapi

Thanks for explaining further. This sounds like such an interesting story concept! Now that I have a fuller picture of what you’re trying to accomplish, I think this approach makes sense and could be very successful. I wish you all the best with your book!

Thank you very much! I was a bit anxious of using that concept, but your words have reassured me!

I wish you all the best, Agapi

Wow! Your explanation of flashbacks was excellent, with clear examples. One of the best. I haven’t read the Hunger Games trilogy, but will look into getting a copy ASAP. Sounds like great storytelling. Thanks again for a wonderful article.

Thanks, Penelope! I’m so glad you found the article helpful.

I have struggled with backstory and flashbacks on my current project. I have read in numerous places that dreams are a no-no. I had started my novel with my main character trying to go to sleep, wary of a repeating dream which explains how she has ended up being immortal and her backstory, i.e. when she was born etc… Through reliving the dream I attempt to dive into her story. Not sure if I should continue in this way or jump into the story, which is a crime novel, and she is the lead investigator, then work it in backstory later.

Your book sounds interesting! Most crime novels start with a strong hook related to the plot then work in backstory later. I recommend this approach, as it gets the reader invested in the story immediately, and they’ll be even more intrigued as they uncover information about your protagonist. There are exceptions, of course, but they require very skillful, well-paced writing. If you try out several different approaches, consider getting feedback from a writing group or beta readers. Wishing you all the best with your book!

Thank you for your response. I will take your suggestion.

Hi loved the article! I was wondering what your thoughts are on using a present tense flashback while writing the whole story in present tense as well. For example, saying something like ‘he remembers that day. He takes himself back there. He’s driving his ‘76 Blazer up the highway. It’s late and he can barely keep his eyes open…. etc.

Do you think something like that can work? Staying in present tense for the flashback?

Great question! I think what you’re proposing could work. The most important thing with flashbacks is to make it flow seamlessly. You want readers to know where the character is at each moment. You don’t want them to have to stop and read the text again to figure out what’s going on.

Best of luck to you! Paige

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• Scriptwriting

How to Write a Flashback in a Script — Techniques & Format

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S creenwriting books and instructors often warn aspiring writers against writing flashbacks in their scripts. They know beginning and amateur writers often use them in a way that can bring a film to a dead stop.

However, so many great films have used flashbacks with resounding success. So, let’s learn from some films that figured out how to do them the right way.

Watch: Anatomy of a Screenplay — Ultimate Guide

Subscribe for more filmmaking videos like this.

FLASHBACK DEFINITION

What is a flashback.

A flashback is scene or moment in a narrative that interrupts the chronology of a story by showing an action or event that happened earlier in the story. An internal flashback takes place within the primary timespan of the story. An external flashback takes place outside of its primary timeline. 

Tips on How to Write a Flashback in a Script:

• Is the flashback necessary? Why?
• Consider the ideal placement of the flashback
• Weave the flashback(s) in naturally to avoid disrupting the flow of the narrative

Flashback Examples in Movies

Scripts that use flashbacks as structure.

Many time when a screenplay takes a trip to the past, it is an isolated deviation. In other words, flashback scenes in movies are more common that "flashback movies." That being said, there have been a number of fantastic screenplays that use a flashback structure to weave in and out of a story's chronology.

Below are just a few classic examples, each brings a distinct flair and personality to writing flashbacks. Some simply start in the present and tell the entire story through one giant flashback. Others bounce back and forth strategically to tell a more nuanced narrative .

• Shawshank Redemption
• It’s a Wonderful Life
• Social Network
• Sunset Boulevard
• Hiroshima Mon Amour
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Fried Green Tomatoes
• The Godfather II
• Don’t Look Now
• Citizen Kane

At the end of this article, check out our detailed blog that covers technical formatting for flashbacks in your screenplay. 

But as we go along, our examples will help  you adapt a style of your own. You can take some creative liberties if you honor the maxim: “Thou shalt not confuse the audience.” 

Why Do Writers Use Flashbacks

The power and purpose of flashbacks.

A good flashback can create mystery, raise the stakes, and clarify meaning and significance. A bad one slows the story momentum with boring information, or worse case, makes it feel like it’s moving backward. To determine if a flashback is necessary ask this ironic question

Is this flashback the best way to move the story forward?

Individually, flashbacks can deepen our connection with a character. They can clarify and accentuate a fact or feeling. On the flip side, they can create doubt, suspense, and mystery.

When using multiple flashbacks, devise an overall strategy that lets them be more than the sum of their parts.

Will they focus on merely mystery, plot, and story? Will they deepen insight into the protagonist? Will they make us ponder meaning and theme?

We will show you when, why, where, and how to write flashbacks in a screenplay.

Orient the Audience

Distinguish your flashbacks.

You are familiar with the common transitions that lead us in and out of a flashback, which include editing transitions like dissolves, clever wipes, blur effects, white flashes, leading dialogue, and ominous music. 

Flashback Parody in Wayne's World

You want to avoid overused clichés yet understand their essential function. Intrigue the reader, don’t confuse them. Make sure flashbacks aren’t disorienting or distracting. Modern moviegoers have developed a sophisticated understanding of film language, so they don’t need much. 

The look of Memento with its alternating color and black-and-white film stock differentiates the present (forward-moving) and past (backward-moving) timelines. The style of The Bourne Supremacy announces its flashbacks with a sudden surge in its rhythm, pace and prose style:

Flashback Example in The Bourne Supremacy  •   Read Full Scene

In Greta Gerwig’s recent adaptation of Little Women , she wrote the flashbacks in red font for the sake of clarity for the reader. Be like Greta.

Use Recurring Visual, Locations and Props

Anchor your flashbacks.

The charming 1967 Stanley Donen film Two for the Road used the couple’s four distinctive cars to track them throughout the story’s four time periods.

The Irishman also uses a car like a timestamp during the 1975-set road trip where Russell and Frank drive to Florida with their wives. What allows the film and this sequence to deftly slip between several eras? Not the high-tech digital de-aging process. But rather good old-fashioned low-tech ingenuity from director Martin Scorsese and his Oscar-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker .

In this movie, Scorsese uses elements unique to each era that help to identify it:

• 1943 - Anzio. Frank in the war. Voiceover segue, uniform, rifle, soldiers
• 1950s - When Russell and Frank begin their relationship. Formal attire and manners, lush restaurant interiors, noticeable absence of wives when the men are together, music, Frank’s voiceover about Russell
• 1975 - Road trip to the wedding. The car, presence of wives, Carrie’s cigarette and smoking, Frank’s voiceover about Carrie as mob royalty, sunny daylight exteriors in nature.

The Irishman script doesn’t even use the word “flashback.” It’s supposed to feel like a single seamless and flowing story. That should also be the goal for your own flashbacks.

Build Characters and your Theme

Flashbacks beyond story & into theme.

Arrival weaves flashbacks and flash-forwards into its story. In fact, Amy Adams’ character Louise’s prescient powers motivate the twisty flashback structure and empower her to “save the day” and the world in the climax. 

The flashbacks resonate significantly as they reveal her decision to have her daughter despite the foreknowledge that the child will die at a young age. The non-linear structure also contributes to fascinating thematic ideas about time, language, communication, and fate.

Theme in Flashbacks

Citizen Kane and Rashomon Effect

These two cinematic masterpieces use flashbacks in their stories in similar but ultimately different ways. The contrasting approach yields drastically different results. Learn from them how flashbacks are a dynamic tool in storytelling.

Citizen Kane and Rashomon are renowned masterpiece “flashback films.” Their characters are unreliable narrators who contradict themselves and others due to intentional deception or subconscious subjectivity.

Everyone seems to discuss them, so to explore them more deeply, check out the clip above. But for a change of pace, here’s a flashback from Citizen Kane that is only verbal. 

Citizen Kane  •  Verbal Flashback

Bernstein’s memory begins as intriguing, but ultimately its anticlimactic, “shaggy dog story” ending sheds no light on the meaning of “Rosebud.” Instead, it addresses a thematic question at the heart of the film: Does subjectivity make memory unreliable?

What’s Love got to do with It?

Show the unshowable.

Flashbacks also allow us to show what can’t be shown in any other way in the narrative. For example, in Gladiator , Maximus’s wife and son are dead. To help the audience feel his love and loss for what would otherwise be absent characters, the film shows “flashbacks” of “imagined memories” (triggered by the figurines of his wife and son).

Flashback Example in The Gladiator  •   Read Full Scene

Remember how Casablanca , possibly the greatest love story of all time, used a flashback similarly to show the unshowable. In present Casablanca, Rick and Ilsa have lost the love they had in Paris. To establish their past and draw the audience into the story, the filmmakers have to leave the present and revisit the past as Rick reminisces about their time in Paris. 

Casablanca  •  Paris Flashback

Ironically the story here must go back so it can ... wait for it ... move forward.

Where to put Flashbacks

The placement of flashbacks.

The placement and purpose of a flashback are inextricably related. When looking for the right spot, don’t think in terms of facts and information. Instead, look for emotion, experience, and mindset. Let a flashback align the audience with the character’s feelings.

Destroyer is a clever and complex flashback film   directed by Karyn Kusama and starring Nicole Kidman as Bell, a self-destructive cop on the hunt for a criminal for shady reasons. So you can watch or study it, here is a purposely vague and spoiler-free example. When Bell finally finds her target, he’s wearing a mask and preparing to rob a bank. 

Flashback Scene in a Script of Destroyer

She needs to know it’s him. And we need to know it’s him. More importantly we need to know she knows it’s him. We can then “feel” her processing the emotional revelation which motivates her to abruptly drop her cover and risk her life to pursue him.

Here is another typical placement of a flashback, but it’s a bit more subtle. In Silence of the Lambs , Clarice travels to West Virginia for an autopsy of one of Buffalo Bill’s victims. The exam room happens to be in the back of a funeral home. An unrelated funeral triggers a flashback to her father’s funeral:

Flashback Scene in Silence of the Lambs  •   Read Full Scene

This flashback is precisely placed but its function is less obvious and concise than our Destroyer example. It gently creates emotional resonance by relating the case and Clarice’s career to her father. She has no personal relationship to the funeral, so the flashback is necessary to explore these feelings.

Why you put them There?

Create maximum impact.

This scene in the final act of Girl on the Train works on many levels and has perfect placement. We get to experience her life-changing epiphanies in the moment as she is having them.

Girl on the Train Ending Scene

If the flashbacks come before or after this point, we feel like detached observers. Because they mirror her internal process and epiphanies, we experience them as empathy and catharsis. They align the audience with the character.   

A flashback that is well-placed and visually integrated can unify or accentuate story, character, and theme.

How to write a montage

Now that we've covered how to write flashbacks in a script, you may have noticed that many of these scenes and sequences are also montages. While there are some similarities between "how to write a flashback in a screenplay" and "how to write a montage," there are a few key differences you should know. In this follow-up post, we'll dive into the formatting and techniques used by professional screenwriters when crafting a montage.

Up Next: Writing a montage → 

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Everything You Need To Know About Writing Flashbacks

When it comes to writing flashbacks, there are a number of pitfalls that writers can fall into. But if done well, this storytelling device can work wonders for your story, revealing backstories, intricate moments, and flashes of memories. In this guide, we’ll take a look at how to write a flashback scene in fiction.

Despite the controversy surrounding their use, flashbacks are a powerful tool for writers. As we’ll see below, you can use them to convey information in an interesting way. 

In this guide, we’ll take a look at the different ways that you could use a flashback. We’ll also explore some examples, and consider how to use them in short stories as well as novels. 

You can jump straight to the section you’re most interested in by clicking below. 

Choose A Chapter

What is a flashback, why do writers use flashbacks, how to write a flashback, dialogue and flashbacks, how to write a flashback using a character’s thoughts, key questions to ask when writing flashbacks, how to introduce a flashback in a story, flashback writing examples, quick tips on writing flashback scenes, how to write a flashback scene in the third person, how to write a flashback in a short story, more guides on writing scenes.

A flashback is a literary device used to present a scene or event from a character’s past within the context of a present-time story.

It is a way to provide background information or insight into a character’s thoughts, feelings, and motivations.

Flashbacks can be used to reveal information that was previously unknown to the reader or to provide a deeper understanding of a character’s actions or decisions. They can also be used to create tension , suspense , or emotional impact.

The scene in the flashback is usually in the past tense, while the surrounding story is in the present tense. It’s a powerful tool for writers to give readers a glimpse into the past and connect past and present events to make sense of the current story.

Are Flashbacks Bad?

Flashbacks are a powerful storytelling device used by authors and screenwriters to delve deeper into a character’s past, reveal key plot points , and develop themes .

While some may argue that flashbacks can disrupt the narrative flow of a story, they are not inherently “bad.” In fact, when used effectively, they can enhance the reader or viewer’s experience and create a more immersive story.

As author Janice Hardy says in her article “5 Tips for Using Flashbacks in Your Fiction,” flashbacks can serve multiple purposes, including “to provide information, reveal character, create tension, and explore themes.”

Flashbacks can also be used to show how past events have shaped a character’s present circumstances or to reveal previously unknown information that adds depth and complexity to a story.

In his book “ The Anatomy of Story ,” screenwriter John Truby argues that flashbacks are an essential tool in crafting a compelling narrative. He writes, “ The flashback is a simple technique, yet it has a profound effect on story… It is one of the few devices that can move us from the objective story to the subjective story and back again. Flashbacks also give you the opportunity to withhold information and then reveal it in a powerful way.”

However, it’s important to use flashbacks judiciously and to ensure they serve a purpose in advancing the story. As literary agent, Donald Maass notes in his book “ The Emotional Craft of Fiction ,” “flashbacks are a tricky device, always threatening to take the reader out of the moment.” Maass suggests that authors should only use flashbacks when they are necessary and when they can be seamlessly integrated into the narrative.

In your writing career, you may have been told to avoid flashbacks like the Black Death. It’s a piece of advice handed down by Stephen King in On Writing. Not long after reading his memoir on the craft, I happened to pick up The Dark Tower: Volume One and there, not long into the story, was a flashback.

But it was a good flashback. In fact, it’s one of the scenes I remember most from that book.

So why the hostility toward flashback scenes? If done well, they work. But done badly, they break the reader’s experience and hold up the progression of the plot and character development .

“If we are enthralled, we don’t want to be interrupted.” Sol Stein

The trick, it seems, is to use flashback scenes as unobtrusively as possible . That’s easier said than done, however.

To help you, we’ll look at why writers use flashbacks, when they could be used, before looking at some examples too.

Flashbacks are a terrific tool that we can employ to reveal new information, locked away in the past.

We can explore key moments, perhaps the ones that hold the answers to the questions raging in your story. Or maybe they show us what happened in a character’s life that made them why they are.

If done well, a flashback can also be used to tell an entire story— The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is arguably one big flashback, with the story following a thread set in the present day, with the main protagonist, Kote, retelling his story. It’s brilliantly done and well worth checking out.

So let’s take a look at how to write a flashback.

Let’s take a look at how to write a flashback.

As we know, a flashback is a scene that occurred before the present story began, usually featuring some kind of conflict. It ought to shed more light on the present story in an important and relevant way. Otherwise, it’s a waste of words.

Before you embark upon a flashback, Sol Stein in his own book called On Writing provides a helpful set of questions to ask yourself:

• If the flashback is necessary, can the reader see the action as if it were happening in the present?
• Is the opening of the flashback as interesting or compelling as the beginning of a novel or story?
• Does the flashback enhance the reader’s experience of the story as a whole?

One potential pitfall of the flashback is delivering it in a passive, telling way, regurgitation of information the writer thinks the reader needs to know.

How do we deliver that information in the right way?

The answer: bring the past into the present . Make it immediate. 

How Do You Write A Good Flashback Scene?

The technical aspects of writing a flashback scene often stump writers. The stereotypical structure of a flashback would involve a character thinking of something and drifting off into the past.

There may be a line break as the reader is transported into times of old. This break from the narrative could span pages at a time, and by the end, it may leave the reader wanting to hurl the book through their window, especially if the flashback fails to advance the story.

So when we look at writing these cut scenes, it can help to bear the following in mind:

Think about small breaks in the narrative, such as a character recalling what a smell reminds them of in a brief sentence, perhaps transporting the reader back to that fleeting moment in time. If you want to have a more in-depth flashback scene, it’s important that this advances and progresses the story in some way. This is to avoid any reader frustration.

A useful tool to make scenes more immediate is dialogue . All forms of dialogue create an immediate scene. Action is taking place before our eyes.

Using dialogue early on in a flashback can help create that sense of immediacy. You almost forget it’s a flashback at all. It can also be used in short sequences of flashbacks , such as when a character is reflecting on a past conversation with another character. Let’s look at an example:

Flashback Example

Leo could still picture her face. The softness of her voice. The scent of her perfume.

            “Do you like my dress?” she asked.

            “Beautiful. Yellow suits you.”

That day seemed like yesterday.

In this example, we’re unobtrusively given a flashback about a character dear to Leo. It’s a great tool to have if you’re looking to learn how to write a flashback in a cunning and natural way.

We’re forever interrupted by our thoughts. When we see, hear, smell, touch, or taste it brings back memories.

The same is true of your characters. They have a history before your story began and in using flashback thoughts you can help to reveal it. It’s a wonderful way of developing your characters.

Let’s look at an example from Sol Stein’s novel, Living Room. Notice how thoughts are interspersed with thoughts from the past.

“Through the gaps in the clouds drifting across the charcoal sky, she made out the moon. As a child, she could always decipher its face; now it seemed to have only a scarred surface, crags and mottled ground where instruments had been implanted, sending messages, even now.”

See how the past is drawn into the present by merely looking at the moon. Here’s another from the next paragraph:

“Suddenly she thought of the unwashed dish with the remains of the cottage cheese and fruit. She should have rinsed it off, stuck it in the dishwasher, left things neat.”

These flashback thoughts allow the reader to get to know a character more. It creates empathy, sharing thoughts the reader may relate to. We begin to care about the character, which is important. To quote Stein: “You have to know about the people in the car before you see the crash.”

Flashback thoughts are quick and require no breaking away from the present story. They sit nicely within the immediate scene, causing no disruption to the reader.

  The experts say the flashback ought to be avoided and we should take this on board. Whenever you consider using one, ask yourself these questions:

• Does the flashback reinforce the story in an important way?
• Is it absolutely essential? If not, think of another way to introduce the information.
• Can the reader witness what’s happening in the flashback? If not, can you make it into an immediate, active scene?
• Is the opening of the flashback compelling and interesting?
• Is the reader’s experience enhanced by the flashback or does it intrude?
• Has the flashback helped to characterise? Does it help the reader empathise with the character?

All of these questions have helped me when it comes to learning how to write a flashback.

It can be quite tricky to find the most natural way of introducing a flashback in a story. However, they do exist, and here’s a list:

• Natural thought – if your story is pretty character-driven as opposed to plot-focused , a great way to slip naturally into a flashback is through a character’s thoughts and introspections. For example, a character may see somebody they know from when they were younger and recalls memories—small flashbacks.
• Through the triggering of memories through the 5 senses – similar to the first point, one of the most powerful thing about the 5 senses is their ability to trigger memories. Smells remind us of places—countries, cities or restaurants, for instance. They have the power to transport us back to times past.
• Dialogue – in other words, a character telling a story. As we’ll see in the next section, this is a common way of naturally introducing a flashback in a story. Picture a wise old woman sat beside a fire, recounting a tale from her youth to the youngsters sitting at her feet. This is a flashback and one that can be delivered in a natural way. Mastering dialogue is tough, however, but this guide offers some very useufl tips.

Here’s a video with some very handy tips on knowing the best way to add a flashback scene into a story:

There are lots of examples of flashbacks in writing, but I want to focus on one here in particular. A book I’ve already mentioned— The Name of The Wind.

Now I’m not sure if Patrick Rothfuss would agree with me when I say it’s arguably a story of flashbacks, but to me, that’s what it is. A character in the present telling a chronicler of his youth. But it’s done so well. And I think that comes down to the characterisation. Kote is charistmatic and interesting. We want to know more about his past, his upbringing, his struggles and his achievements. And that’s what the story essentially is, the reader trawling through the past of Kote to see how he arrived at this very moment.

As writers, we can take an important lesson away from this. That characterisation can be a key ingredient to the success of a flashback. If we create a character that’s interesting and intriguing, readers will want to know more about them. They’ll crave a flashback, thank you for it even.

Here are some easily digestible tips and advice on writing flashback scenes.

• Understand the function of a flashback scene and the impact it could have on your story
• Try to limit the time spent in the past, away from the immediate story
• when writing a flashback scene, pick a tense and stick with it.
• Introduce a natural way to cut to the flashback scene
• Determine the purpose of the flashback – is it relevant and does it develop the plot or character?

When we delve back into time, it’s natural for our voice to change too. We revert to the past tense, as per all of those English lessons in school!

Writing a flashback in the third person feels the much more accessible form. But that’s not to stop you from experimenting. For example, if it’s clear from the structure of the story that a scene is a flashback, you could experiment with using the first person. This would make that scene much more gripping and immersive.

Using the first person could also be a good way of changing tense in a way that doesn’t jar with the reader too much either. From a storytelling perspective too, if you wanted to bring the reader closer to that particular character, this is a good way to do so.

So when it comes to knowing how to write a flashback scene in the third person, go for what feels natural. 

To write a flashback in a short story, you can use a variety of techniques. One common method is to use transition words or phrases such as “earlier,” “before,” or “in the past,” to indicate to the reader that the story is shifting to a different time period.

Another method is to use a sentence or a paragraph that starts with a line of dialogue or a piece of action that sets the scene for the flashback. It’s important to use clear and descriptive language when writing the flashback to help the reader understand the context and significance of the events being described.

Above all, it’s a good idea to make sure the flashback is relevant to the story and adds to the overall narrative.

There are a few things you can do to make sure your flashback in a short story is the best it can possibly be:

• Pick a compelling catalyst for the flashback. A memory triggered by one of the 5 senses , for example, can create a natural segue way into a flashback.
• With words at a premium, it’s important not to indulge too much in the flashback. Dip in and dip out. Less is more, a rule often spoken about in writing circles, is a good one to keep in mind here.
• The flashback ought to advance or contribute to the story in some way. With short stories we don’t need to go into lots of detail about a character’s background or the reasons behind why they’re doing what they’re doing, so don’t frustrate the reader by failing to progress the present story.
• Refrain from including too many flashbacks in a story. By this I mean the cut-away flashbacks that leave the present moment altogether. They can really jar the flow.

Writing a flashback scene is tricky, especially when it comes to short stories.

Thanks for checking out this writing guide. Below, I’ve included some other related writing guides you may find useful.

• What Is A Flashback? – A detailed guide on writing flashbacks from Oregon State University.
• Great Examples Of The 5 Senses In Writing – My guide on making your stories more immersive by using the five senses.
• How To Write Great Prose – Another one of my writing guides exploring the two main types of prose—Orwellian prose and the stained glass window.
• How To Write Fight Scenes – A look at how to write another technical scene—battles and one vs one fights.

Thank you for checking out this guide on how to write a flashback scene in fiction.

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richiebilling

About author, related posts, 15 amazing words to describe the moon, with definitions and example sentences, examples of the 5 senses in writing and how to use them, mastering dialogue: the very best tips, 12 comments.

I finished a book a couple of months ago that used flashbacks regularly and it ended up creating two mysteries within the book. 1)What happened back then that caused the relationship to be how it is now and 2) what was occurring currently in their lives. I guess this falls under your “Flashbacks and suspense” suggestion. I loved it and thought it was quite clever.

I like that idea a lot. Very cunning indeed! Thanks for reading!

I agree with your points – nothing but sensible advice! But for some reason, the word “flashback” keeps bugging me. Maybe because it feels borrowed from cinema? Playing around with temporality has always been a staple technique of literature, and comes easier to writing than to film, I feel. Maybe “flashback” suggests too much to me the adoption of film techniques into writing – an analogue which may work for some, but which I’ve found constricting. The same with “fight scene”. Thoughts? Borrowing across art forms can be fruitful, but are we occasionally thinking too much through the lens of visual entertainment?

I like your angle. It’s easy to be led along certain paths when we introduce ideas from other art forms, only then to become frustrated when things don’t pan out quite as hoped. You’re absolutely right. Shall we make up our own version of the flashback?

Haha, why not! Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with the concept. And with writers who also do screenwriting, the flashback is probably a very natural thing. Say, have you read Gene Wolfe’s “The Knight”?

I haven’t Would you recommend it?

Definitely, if you can stomach Wolfe’s foibles! 😀 I mention it, because I feel it illustrates beautifully some related principles, namely the use of the frame story, elisions, non-linear storytelling, and temporal tricks. In my mind, definitely a storybook – a thing hard to translate into cinematic language.

What I’ve found is that anything can work as long as it’s well done.

Funny thing about Stephen King is that his early works seem to violate every rule in “On Writing.” It appears it took King a long time to learn those rules. In the case of flashbacks, “IT” is just full of them, and they often come at the worst times, breaking up the action. I don’t think flashbacks are necessarily a bad thing, but they are difficult to due well. In one of my books, I set the first scene of a chapter as a flashback, but this was used to introduce a new character and the scene itself was a mini story, with an arc and lots of action, which made it more engaging. Anyway, thanks for the great tips! 😀

Substantially, the post is really the sweetest on this precious topic. I fit in with your conclusions and will eagerly look forward to your coming updates. Simply saying thanks will not simply be enough, for the awesome lucidity in your writing. I will at once grab your rss feed to stay abreast of any updates. Genuine work and much success in your business efforts!

Most excellent read, sir! I don’t use the flashback myself, and now that I type that, it’s probably not true. So far, when I’ve needed to impart backstory, I have the relevant character tell another the story in the current time, and to date, it has been sufficient; I, too, loathe to break immersion.

Allow me to refer you to Black Light by Stephen Hunter. It is the story of a young man in the 1990s trying to solve the murder of his father in the 1950s. The whole novel is a series of jumps between what the son discovers in the current day and what his father was doing to leave that clue in the ’50s. Seriously one of the best books I’ve ever read, and literally half the book is flashbacks… It can be done!

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How to Write a Flashback (And When You Shouldn’t)

Before asking how to write a flashback, you must ask yourself why you want to write a flashback in the first place.

This storytelling device can be a great way to draw the reader deeper into your character’s inner world or heighten the tension. A well-crafted flashback can reveal riveting information or raise new, compelling questions.

It can also be a gimmick, a bore, or a complete waste of page space.

That’s why understanding how to write a flashback starts with simply understanding how a flashback functions.

And that’s exactly what you’re about to learn.

We’ll discuss the pros and cons to writing a flashback, how to determine if this device is the best way to deliver backstory, and, of course, how to write a flashback like a pro… should you decide to go for it.

Let’s start with the most important question.

Does Your Story Really Need a Flashback?

Allow me to start by clarifying: a flashback is a scene that transports the reader to a moment in the backstory. It’s not just a reference to something that happened in the past but a recreation of that experience.

So, this is not a flashback:

‍ Harold cracked an egg the way his father had taught him back when they made Mother’s Day breakfast together. Then he reached for the bacon.

This is a flashback:

‍ Harold cracked an egg the way his father had taught him the first time they made Mother’s Day breakfast. His dad had gently shaken him awake while his mother still slept, and the two of them tip-toed down the stairs to the kitchen. (Plus a bunch of other stuff that probably includes egg breaking, dialogue, and a strong sense of relationship.)

Now, if you’re familiar with the popular writing advice “Show, don’t tell,” you may be thinking a flashback is always the way to go for revealing backstory. Here’s why it’s not.

The Trouble With Flashbacks

For one thing, flashbacks pull your reader out of the timeline they’re engaged in. This means you want to make sure your flashbacks:

• Are relevant to the story the reader already cares about
• Don’t happen too frequently
• Don’t squash the pace or tension you’re building in the current timeline

Also, flashbacks can be confusing if you don’t nail your transitions. If it’s not clear that your character is looking back in time, your reader will be lost when a character shows up out of nowhere asking for a divorce. 

Most importantly, flashbacks aren’t always necessary. A flashback is not the only interesting way to unload exposition. (In fact, here are several others .) If anything, a flashback is the most disruptive, cumbersome way to get your reader up to speed.

That doesn’t mean it’s bad. It just means you need a good reason to use it.

Excellent Reasons for Including a Flashback

So what are the benefits of writing a flashback?

Well, for one, a flashback can be an effective tool for building suspense or presenting the reader with a mystery . The Bullet That Missed opens with a scene where some woman with Bethany has a gun, knows she might die today, and sends a cryptic text.

Then suddenly we’re in the current timeline where Bethany has been dead for a decade and the Thursday Murder Club is trying to figure out what happen. Because we experienced the flashback for ourselves, it feels like we’re coming into the story already equipped with clues. We’re part of the investigation, which is exactly how a mystery writer wants us to feel.

On the flip side, a flashback can offer meaningful clarity . A Man Called Ove repeatedly flashes back to scenes from Ove’s courtship and marriage. The more the reader understands the bond he shared with his wife, the easier it is to forgive him for raging at the world after her death.

And I’ll let that same example illustrate this next flashback benefit: showing readers who a character used to be. Who was the protagonist before their life-changing trauma—before “The Ghost” ?

You can even use a flashback to dig into the backstory of a side character who wouldn’t otherwise get the protagonist treatment. In fact, this can be a strategy for helping readers sympathize with the antagonist .

Now that we’ve established the good and the not-so-good of this storytelling device, let’s delve into how to write a flashback.

Because whether or not you still plan to do it in your current novel, it pays to be informed.

How to Write a Flashback 

1. Time It Carefully

Now that you know why you’re writing a flashback, ask yourself where to place it in your story to best accomplish your goal.

• Tension - If you’re interrupting a scene designed to build suspense, make sure the flashback adds to the tension. Hold off or put the flashback in a less suspenseful scene if it doesn’t.
• Pacing - Flashbacks often slow the pace of a story. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind. 
• Insight - When will the information the flashback reveals be most impactful for the reader? How does the flashback enhance what’s going on in the current timeline? 

When you know where you want to put your flashback, then you can move on to step two.

2. Transition Gracefully

The transition is everything. Everything . If your transitions into and out of the flashback aren't good, your readers won’t realize they’re in a flashback. Confusion and chaos will follow.

Here are some classic strategies for how to write a flashback transition.

Create a “Door”

This is when you create some kind of magical door that allows a character to see into the past. 

Now, the line between flashback and time travel gets a little blurry here. For our purposes, we’re talking about scenes where a character can observe the past but not participate in it.

Well-known examples of the magical door include Harry Potter looking into the Pensieve or the Ghost of Christmas Past showing Ebenezer Scrooge his regrettable choices.

The transition strategy is pretty straightforward. Your character sticks their head in a bowl or follows the ghost or looks in a mirror or whatever. They see what they need to see and leave the same way they came in.

Trigger a Memory

Signal to your reader the narrative is shifting into the past by showing that your character is remembering something.

Now, if you only need one to three sentences to tell the reader everything they need to know about this memory, it’s not really a flashback. Just say what you need to say and move on.

But if this is going to take a few paragraphs, clarity is key. Phrases like “she thought about” or “he remembered” can help. So can using past perfect tense when you’re easing into the flashback. “It had been a hot summer” rather than “It was a hot summer.” (Side note: if you’re writing in present tense, simple past tense will suffice for flashback transitions.)

Then make your return to the present moment super clear. 

“Now he was stranded on the side of the road feeling miles away from who’d been back then.” 

“But none of that was worth thinking about now.” 

Something like that.

Use Physical Breaks

A simple line break can signal a shift in time. But be aware that most readers will assume the timeline is moving forward. 

So use the final line of the previous paragraph to reference the backstory your reader is about to see. Then give the reader an immediate sense of time and place after the break. For example:

“...This wasn’t who she used to be. She used to be the brightest star in Greenfield.

The day Misty was crowned Corn Queen, cameras seemed to follow her everywhere…”

You can also use a flashback as a prologue . Or, if you want to go big, you can turn flashbacks in entire chapters all their own. 

That’s not the same thing as alternating timelines. If your novel has alternating timelines, you’re telling two stories that carry equal weight. They probably complement one another in some way, but neither story exists purely to explain the other.

A series of chapter-long flashbacks, however, functions to shed light on the conflict of the central story. It can (and probably does) contain its own conflict and character arcs . But as readers, we devour those flashback chapters in search of answers that affect the main storyline.

This is why flashback chapters:

• Tend to be fewer and far between than chapters that focus on the central conflict
• Typically don’t show up until several chapters into the main story, when the reader has had a chance to become invested enough to care about the backstory

There is one time when you can blur the transition between the current timeline and the flashback.

That’s when the line is blurry for your character, too.

Maybe they have dementia or PTSD or they’ve suffered a blow to the head. Whatever it is, something in the present moment has triggered an old memory, and now they’re living it again.

Now, in order to make this work, your reader needs to understand that the character is not experiencing things exactly as they are. 

You can provide that clarity by establishing your character’s memory challenges ahead of time. Another reliable tactic is to put something there that obviously does not belong, like a phonograph in a public restroom or a lover who died twenty years before.

3. Keep It Brief (Probably)

Once you’ve artfully transitioned into your flashback, don’t get too comfortable there.

Give your reader the information they need. No more, no less. Then get them back to the story they came for.

Now, as I give you this advice, I do want to admit that sometimes a long flashback is satisfying. Little Fires Everywhere is the perfect example of a book that features a backstory so juicy (and relevant!) readers don’t mind spending full chapters in the past.

Most of the gasping I did while reading that book was flashback gasping.

But if you plan to pull a Celeste Ng and go long with your flashbacks, you need to follow the golden rule of how to write a flashback:

Know why you’re doing it. And make sure your reason is air-tight.

On that note:

4. Make It Relevant and Revelatory

For us writers, a deep dive into our character’s past makes for a thrilling Saturday night.

But most readers only want to know about your protagonist’s spelling bee humiliation if it helps them experience your novel on a deeper level.

So what new insight does your flashback provide for your reader?

This could be something straightforward, like the revelation that the butler couldn’t possibly be the murderer since he was at the horse track the whole time. 

Or it could be deeper insight into your character—something that stirs empathy, clarifies context, or raises the stakes.

Suzanne Collins does this in The Hunger Games when Katniss remembers the time Peeta tossed her the loaf of bread he’d been commanded to give to the pigs. This person had once saved her family from starvation.

And now she has to kill him in order to keep providing for her family. 

6. Use Concrete Details

Finally, let’s end this guide to how to write a flashback the same way we began it: by acknowledging that flashbacks are a “show, don’t tell” storytelling device.

The entire point of recreating your character’s near-death experience instead of just mentioning it is to help your reader experience it. You want them to feel what your character felt and invest more deeply in the story’s central conflict.

To do that, you have to provide specific, concrete details. What did the air feel like that day? What were the physical sensations that told your protagonist they were feeling a sense of dread?

If you could use a quick primer on your “show, don’t tell” skills, we’ve got some worksheets to help you out.

How to Write a Flashback With Dabble

If this guide was a little more involved than you expected, don’t lose heart. It’s true that a lot of things can go wrong with flashbacks. But when you get your timing, purpose, and prose just right, so much more can go very, very right.

Need a little help thinking it through? Dabble’s got you covered. This writing tool has an adaptable Plot Grid that makes it easy to see how your flashbacks function within the main storyline. 

Plus, comments, stickies, and labels provide an easy way for you to keep track of new ideas or problem areas as you go.

Best of all, you can try every premium feature Dabble offers absolutely free for fourteen days. No credit card required. Click here and start exploring.

Abi Wurdeman is the author of Cross-Section of a Human Heart: A Memoir of Early Adulthood, as well as the novella, Holiday Gifts for Insufferable People. She also writes for film and television with her brother and writing partner, Phil Wurdeman. On occasion, Abi pretends to be a poet. One of her poems is (legally) stamped into a sidewalk in Santa Clarita, California. When she’s not writing, Abi is most likely hiking, reading, or texting her mother pictures of her houseplants to ask why they look like that.

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How to write a flashback scene: 7 key steps

Writing flashbacks is an important skill to master if your novel cuts across time periods or strongly features characters’ memories. Here are 7 key steps for how to write a flashback scene:

• Post author By Bridget McNulty
• 12 Comments on How to write a flashback scene: 7 key steps

How to write flashbacks:

• Know why your story needs a flashback
• Look at flashback examples in fiction for insights
• Choose your flashback’s time-frame
• List details that will be different
• Practice how to write flashbacks with consistent tense
• Decide how you will transition to flashback scenes

To unpack each step a little:

1. Know why your story needs a flashback

In many novels, the events of the story take place chronologically, in straightforward succession from scene to scene. However, in stories involving characters’ memories or large leaps in time, flashbacks are useful for showing formative or crucial moments that drive characters’ present-time psychologies and decisions.

What is a flashback in literature?

Flashbacks are scenes inserted into the present narrative time-frame from a time period that precedes the primary story arc. A flashback example: A female narrator in her 50s describes the day her younger sibling drowned on a family vacation.

The example above strikes at something important about flashbacks: Flashbacks typically recall a scene of emotional power. They show the memories that haunt characters, although they can also be intensely happy moments.

Deciding whether or not your narrative needs a flashback

As an alternative to writing flashbacks, you can substitute exposition. Your central character can recall the day a traumatic or wonderful event happened. Yet describing the scene as though your character is living and experiencing it for the first time can be much more emotionally affecting. This allows the reader to  see the pivotal story event with immediacy through your character’s eyes.

To decide whether an earlier event in your character’s backstory (e.g. witnessing a murder) needs a flashback scene, ask yourself:

• What are the benefits of showing the reader the earlier scene through my character’s eyes?
• Is the scene important enough to my central story arc to break from narrative continuity?
• How will I convey to the reader that this is a flashback and not an event happening in the present time of the story?

Provided your flashback contains important clues or explanations for your characters’ personalities and/or actions, it will not make your story less cohesive. Provided that readers understand your scene is a flashback (and not present-time narration), the flashback won’t create confusion.

2. Look at flashback examples in fiction to get insights

Writing flashbacks is storytelling time travel. Getting it right can be hard. So research novels that use this narrative device and see how other authors approach flashbacks.

An excellent example of a flashback is the opening of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby , where the narrator Nick Carraway recalls formative advice given him by his father:

‘In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”’

From the outset, this flashback creates the impression of a character who is observant and self-aware. It also establishes one of the central themes of The Great Gatsby : How people react to their privilege or disadvantages.

This example is just a snippet of flashback. There are longer examples, too. For example, in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, there is a scene in which Harry uses a memory-storing magical device called a ‘pensieve’ to view a court hearing that took place many years before . The hearing is crucial to understanding present narrative events .  Although the scene is not Harry’s own memory, it functions the same as a regular story flashback.

Get feedback on flashback scenes

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3. Choose your flashback’s time-frame

When you write a flashback, it’s important to choose a reasonable time-frame for the scene. Typically, a flashback will consist of a single conversation or event that occurs over a single day. There’s nothing to say you can’t insert an entire week’s events in the middle of your story. Keeping the time frame of your flashback brief, however, will ensure the reader isn’t too distracted from the present arc of your story.

If you want to convey how an entire year in your character’s life was formative, for example, it is better to summarize this year in a few lines of expository narrative.

4. List any details that will be different during your character’s flashback

Times change. Because time isn’t static, remember to show how your characters and their circumstances are different during your flashback scene. For example, if a character living in 1999 recalls the 1960s, think about how slang, music and other cultural details differ.

A few small details (such as a song playing on the radio or a description of a period hairstyle) can signal that we’ve traveled back in narrative time. List the most significant differences between your character’s present life and their life during the time period of their flashback. Even if not all details make it into the story, it will help you strike an authentic note.

5. Learn how to write a flashback that has consistent tense

New authors especially struggle with tense. Your choices are multiple: you could write your flashback in the same tense as your present-time narrative, differentiating time periods with explicit reference to the year. For example:

‘It was November in 1960. The King’s ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’ was playing over the radio as we crowded around our mother’s kitchen.’

You could also write your flashback in a different tense to your main, present-time narrative. For example, if most of your novel is in recent past tense (‘The doorbell rang as I awoke’), you can switch to the present tense for your flashback scene:

‘It’s the 21st of November, 1960. The King’s ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’ is playing over the radio as we crowd around our mother’s kitchen.’

Whatever approach you choose, be consistent throughout your flashback scene. Pick a tense and stick with it.

6. Decide how you will transition to flashback scenes

Part of writing a successful flashback scene is knowing how and when to cut to the scene that lies outside of your story’s main chronology. Like all story scenes, your flashback scene should have good structure ( NB: You can download our free, concise eBook guide to crafting effective scene structure here ).

Some suggestions:

• Instead of writing a short intro paragraph to a flashback, launch straight into your flashback at the start of a scene or chapter. This way the transition is less obvious – you can signal a change in time simply in narration, as in the example using reference to the year in section 5 above.
• Try to insert flashback scenes after strong scenes in the present time of your story. This makes it easier for the reader to recall where the present-time narration left off once the flashback is over

7. Check that your flashback focuses on a single experience or event that supports your story arc

Once you’ve written your flashback scene, double-check that it is completely relevant to the later story. In a murder mystery novel, a flashback scene might provide an essential clue regarding the identity of the killer. In a character-driven family saga, it could show a formative familial relationship, conversation or confrontation that shapes your character’s outlook.

Make sure that your flashback scene draws your reader’s attention towards the key element that will deepen your reader’s understanding of key later scenes. This way, your story will feel cohesive even if the narrative does not follow a linear chronological path. Flashbacks are just one literary device that you can use. Read our list of 25 literary devices to see which others can enhance your writing.

Do you want to improve your craft? Start getting helpful feedback on your flashbacks and other scenes from other writers.

Related Posts:

• How to write a scene: Nailing purpose and structure
• How to write an autobiography: 7 key steps
• What will help me write a book? 7 steps
• Tags how to write a flashback , narration , story structure

By Bridget McNulty

Bridget McNulty is a published author, content strategist, writer, editor and speaker. She is the co-founder of two non-profits: Sweet Life Diabetes Community, South Africa's largest online diabetes community, and the Diabetes Alliance, a coalition of all the organisations working in diabetes in South Africa. She is also the co-founder of Now Novel: an online novel-writing course where she coaches aspiring writers to start - and finish! - their novels. Bridget believes in the power of storytelling to create meaningful change.

12 replies on “How to write a flashback scene: 7 key steps”

I remember reading something by Samuel R. Delany (it might have been in _On Writing_). He gave good examples of when to start flashbacks and when not to. For example, if you start with a short setup to a scene and then immediately go to a flashback, you might as well just start with the previous scene.

A good pointer, Charles. Thanks for sharing!

In the movie “Bella” they had a flash forward, one of the few flash forwards in movies that I know of. It was a scene where the main character was imagining what would happen if she got an abortion, it worked quite well but it was also very ambiguous.

Interesting, Emily. I must look out for that movie. It can be quite ambiguous and confusing when the author jumps forward to some imagined place or time.

Wow! Amazing info. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, was really useful.

Thanks, Miguel! Happy you found this useful. Happy New Year!

[…] was not sure what a lot of it added. Perhaps that is why there was not much written as flashback, unlike Kaladin’s flashbacks in The Way of […]

Hey just wondering is this a good flashback. This is a flashback from a book I am making: Darkstar kicks Shadow Storm back. Lillian runs and throws three Weapons at The Shadow Conqueror. The Shadow Conqueror blocks it. Shadow Storm and Darkstar clash swords. Shadow Storm is seen to be the better fighter. Shadow Storm kicks Darkstar back. Suddenly an explosion sends everyone back. Everyone looks up. It takes everyone including The Shadow Conqueror a moment to realize its Rodan’s greatest hero ever.

“Ash Stone?” Asked Shadow Storm. Shadow Storm suddenly has a flash back. It was when he was little. A figure is there. The same figure as now. “Mom? Who is that?” Asked Shadow Storm. His mom looks over. “I need to protect you!” Said the figure.

“Never!” Yelled his mother. His mother uses a Weapon and breaks the ceiling. The ceiling falls with a clash on the figure. The figure gets up. Suddenly Lily enters the room. She gets in front of them. Lily is younger and not as wise.

“Let me take you! She’s your enemy” said Lily. “Listen here. I can save you from Lily. I am part of Rodan! Lily is planning a war against the Rodan” said the figure. Lily suddenly turns to the figure. “Then I will kill your mother” said the figure.

There is a massive explosion from the figure and Lily runs to save them. Shadow Storms flashback ends. Shadow Storm looks horrified. The figure walks from out of the dust. Shadow Storm is in absolute shock.

“Oh great. Forgot about this” said The Shadow Conqueror to himself. Shadow Storm takes a few steps back in fear and confusion. Lillian looks around confused as well. She teleports off. “Ash Stone?” Asked Shadow Storm again. The figure is now seen as the dust, and everything clears. Shadow Storm looks in absolute fear. Everyone was silent.

No one wanted to speak. Not even The Shadow Conqueror. They just keep looking at each other. The silence that grows around them made them feel off and eerie. “WHO ARE YOU?” Asked Shadow Storm breaking the silence. “The figure from your flashback” said the voice.

Hi James, a few things could make this stronger:

• Subtler flashback transitions: Saying ‘Shadow Storm suddenly has a flashback’ draws the reader’s attention to the use of the flashback device. I’d suggest something subtler such as, ‘Ash Stone?” Asked Shadow Storm. There was no answer. Everything around him had changed. He was… [further, brief description of the change of location/situation to re-anchor the reader within the flashback].
• Stable tense: There are many tense shifts between present and past tense which makes this challenging to read. Since the scene starts in present tense, all events within the same timeline/scene should be in present tense too (so, for example, ‘“Ash Stone?” asks Shadow Storm).
• Clarity and pace: In the flashback, a lot of dramatic action and dialogue happens all at once, without much setup of who is where in the scene. Introductions read as though the reader knows who each character is (for example, ‘Suddenly Lily enters the room. She gets in front of them. Lily is younger and not as wise’). Who is Lily? Has her identity already been established in the story at this point? What is their relation to the other characters? It is advisable to slow the pace down enough so that conflict makes sense and is properly contextualized.

This is just to start, but I would say the highest-level issue is confusing tense and erratic clarity/specificity. Keep going.

[…] Writing flashbacks is a tricky thing, but this article has some good tips and tricks for doing it correctly: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/incorporate-flashbacks-into-a-story/ […]

So what do you do if you’ve got a lot of scenes (like the better part of a novella) that need to be told, but happen to a character the reader doesn’t have a reason to care about until several books after they happened?

That’s a tough one, Wendy. Can you somehow move the action closer, so the character becomes more important earlier on? If the readers don’t care upfront this could be really difficult. Can you tell me more?

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• 1-800-611-FILM
• Screenwriting

Writing Tips: How To Write A Flashback

Flashbacks are creative ways to give the audience information about previous events that is needed in order to develop storylines and to understand the actions of characters throughout the feature. Some writers are more liberal with their flashbacks, creating an entire episode or film using almost only flashbacks while others are more conservative, using flashbacks only when necessary.

Flashbacks correlate with the present generally to justify or to explain the character’s actions in the present. Recalling a significant event from the character’s past can be shown visually, providing significant clues or revelations regarding the character’s motivations. This significant event can portray any type of experience: grieving, happy, shameful, mysterious, troublesome, terrifying or sexual.

Flashback Techniques

It is crucial for the screenwriter to choose the precise moment where a flashback is needed in the context of the script, the exact moment where the screenwriter opens the doors to let the audience into the character’s past. As a screenwriter, you must be mindful that the transition is seamless rather than jolting the audience from the present to the past, and back again into the present like a rickety roller coaster. Techniques that offer a smooth transition include looking at a photograph, hearing a song, or looking off into the distance to a setting that resembles the character’s past. All of these examples trigger a memory that smoothly carry the character into the past.

Here is an example of a flashback from the movie The Sixth Sense :

FLASHBACK – CROWE RESIDENCE

Violent gun shots ring through the bedroom.

Anna rushes across the room to a crumpled Malcolm laying on

the floor. Malcolm’s hands are clutched at his side.

INT. LIVING ROOM – NIGHT – PRESENT DAY

 (screaming)

Transitioning Layout

In the above example, the word FLASHBACK is used to indicate that the scene that follows is a flashback. Then, the scene is written and formatted like any other scene. When it is time to transition back to the present, the words PRESENT DAY are used to indicate that the script is now leaving the flashback and returning to the present moment.

Perfecting the Craft of Flashbacks

The best way to learn how to write flashbacks in your screenplay is to read other screenplays and watching the films. You will see how other screenwriters have incorporated flashbacks into their screenplays and how they manifest in real life or on the big screen. You will see where flashbacks have been effective and where they fall short so that you can avoid those pitfalls.  Some screenplays that have successfully incorporated flashbacks include Men in Black 3 , The Godfather 2, and Slumdog Millionaire .

There may be many drafts in between because a flashback can make or break your screenplay. Choose wisely when and if you need a flashback and how to execute the flashback in your writing.

How to Invoke Mood in Writing?

• Smodin Editorial Team
• Published: May 27, 2024

Do you struggle to convey emotions in your creative essays? Finding it tricky to help your teacher identify with your character’s feelings? You’re not alone. Crafting emotional writing in creative essays is a challenge all students (and even some seasoned fiction writers) face.

But worry not! This guide is here to help. It’ll cover how to invoke mood in writing, using techniques like descriptive language, engaging characters, and powerful symbolism.

Trust us, with these tips, you’ll write stories that’ll put your teacher or professors right in the thick of things.

6 Ways to Invoke Mood in Writing

Yes, invoking mood in writing can be hard. But it doesn’t have to be! Use any one or all of the following techniques to leave your readers in tears of joy in no time. It’s also important to note that this doesn’t just apply to creative writing.

Carefully crafting the appropriate tone of your research paper is also essential to convey your intended message.

1. Use Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t just some robot that’ll give you generic answers. It’s reshaping how both fiction writers and students approach emotional writing. AI tools can help writers effectively evoke intense emotions, like anger and sadness. For example, AI can analyze patterns in storytelling and suggest descriptive words that align with the desired mood or tone.

AI can also identify emotional beats in your story and suggest changes to make a character’s feelings more vivid.

Another benefit is feedback on a reader’s emotional responses. When writers know how readers identify with characters, they can adjust scenes to convey emotion more powerfully. Also, AI can provide insights into word choice, keeping your writing consistent throughout. Incorporating AI into your creative writing process aids in refining your storytelling techniques.

2. Use descriptive language

Descriptive language plays a key role in helping readers empathize and immerse themselves in a story. Using vivid imagery and sensory details is key. These allow readers to better understand each character’s emotional beats. You can optimize your word choice via the following:

• Sensory details : Describe what the character sees, hears, tastes, touches, and smells. This can create a world that feels real to readers.
• Metaphors and similes : Compare emotions to familiar experiences. For example, “her sadness was like a heavy rain cloud.” This can bring abstract feelings to life.
• Specific vocabulary : Choose words carefully to match the emotional tone of each moment.
• Body language and expressions : Show what a character feels through their body language. This could be things like “clenched fists” or “trembling lips.”

3. Create engaging characters and settings

If you want your readers to identify with your story, you have to create engaging characters and immersive settings. Start by exploring each character’s emotions and internal struggles. Their personalities, fears, and ambitions should be clear to evoke emotion from the reader. Instead of simply telling, use dialogue and actions to reveal feelings.

Equally important is setting the stage for vivid descriptions that reflect the character’s emotions. Does a bustling city add excitement and anticipation, or does a gloomy forest enhance the character’s sadness? Your settings should amplify the mood you’re looking to communicate.

Blend characters and settings so that their emotional beats align. You should also let the environment mirror the protagonist’s highs and lows, leaving room for them to grow.

4. Employ narrative techniques

Narrative techniques are important for evoking intense emotions and maintaining the emotional impact throughout your story.

One effective technique is point of view . A first-person perspective gives a more intimate look at a character’s thoughts and emotions. This makes it easier for readers to relate to their internal struggles. Alternatively, a third-person point of view can reveal multiple character’s feelings and deepen the emotion.

Foreshadowing is another valuable tool. It subtly hints at future events to build anticipation and heighten excitement. Readers become emotionally invested as they sense impending joy or dread, depending on your hints.

And then there’s pacing , which plays a role in mood creation. Short, rapid sentences give off excitement or urgency. Long sentences convey reflective or somber emotions. Balancing fast and slow moments makes the narrative more dynamic.

Lastly, flashbacks reveal past emotional experiences, shedding light on why characters behave the way they do.

5. Use symbolism and themes

This can help you evoke emotion in a subtle yet powerful way. Symbolism helps bridge the gap between abstract emotions and tangible experiences. For example, a storm could represent turmoil within a character or symbolize renewal after hardship.

Themes like hope, loss, or redemption guide the story’s emotional beats. They act like a thread that ties the character’s thoughts and experiences together. When you anchor your story to a central theme, you connect characters to relatable emotional experiences. This makes them feel more authentic.

In emotional writing, nonverbal cues like body language also serve as symbols. They reveal what a character feels before any dialogue does so. A clenched jaw could mean anger or a trembling hand could hint at fear.

Also, drawing from your own emotional experiences can deepen your understanding of these symbols. This enables you to build an emotional narrative that really speaks to readers.

6. Edit for mood consistency

Editing is a key and often overlooked aspect of emotional writing. Once your draft is done, read through each scene carefully, noting how a character feels and how this affects the story’s tone. If emotions in one scene don’t align with the overall narrative, revise it so that the mood remains consistent.

Pay attention to details like word choice, body language, and dialogue. Think of it this way: If your main character is heartbroken, their words and actions should show that. A single stray sentence or out-of-place reaction could provoke a different emotional response in readers.

Also, make sure the characters’ emotions progress in a natural way. As they overcome challenges or face new problems, make sure their emotions evolve logically. Review each emotional beat and edit to maintain flow and clarity.

Invoke Mood in Your Writing with Smodin

Writing emotions that resonate means tapping into deep emotions inside of yourself and your characters. Whether it’s a short story you’re writing or a research paper, conveying your own emotions helps readers connect. With practice, students can evoke emotional responses that make lasting memories.

Sometimes, it doesn’t hurt to have a little help with conveying intense emotion in your work. Smodin offers valuable AI-driven tools that can transform your storytelling process. These tools empower writers to convey mood consistently throughout their writing.

Key offerings include:

• AI Writer : Generate high-quality text with references. Ensures your writing aligns precisely with the mood you want.
• AI Chat : Use AI chat to brainstorm or clarify ideas. Provides immediate feedback on emotional beats and narrative structure.
• AI Homework Solver : Solve creative challenges by quickly generating ideas for plotlines, characters, and settings.

Smodin also provides detailed feedback on word choice and structure, helping you convey your message effectively. But, all this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what it has to offer.

And just so you don’t forget: For a reliable tool that refines your storytelling and unleashes your creativity, Smodin is your secret weapon!