Get on with the Present—Don’t Live in the Past

Posted by Terry Spears, 04/03/08 06:59 PM

What happens to the avid listener? The storyteller has lost him. The listener is now drawn into the past. Will he be as rabidly entertained? Maybe.

But wait, we have to get back to the present, and the narrator pauses and begins again with the current crisis.

I just finished reading a terrific historical romance—super characterizations, descriptions, plotting, but a couple of times the author pulled me out of the current riveting story to reminisce about past life experiences.

In one of the passages, I was so disoriented by the shift, I had to flip back to where the flashback began to assure myself that it was a flashback. Did it add to the story?

Not for me.

I read a paranormal like that, too, where the story was going along great and then the author stops everything to reminisce about the past. Again in this instance, it didn’t add anything to the story as far as I was concerned. It was filler, boring, and a distraction.

Whenever possible, keep the story moving forward. Sure, it’s fine for the hero to think of the special moments he’d spent with the heroine the night before, or consider the grudge he’s held against his brother for the last hundred years.

But when a flashback turns into actual scenes with dialogue and action, is it really necessary to the story? Does it maybe force the reader out of the story too much? Will you lose some of your readers? Will they forgive you?

Move the story forward. Write in the present. Don’t force your reader to live in the past unless it’s absolutely necessary and adds to the story. Use them sparingly and when you do, don’t make them so long that the reader forgets this is not the current story, but a flashback to the past.

Terry Lee Wilde/Terry Spear
www.terryspear.com The Vampire…In My Dreams (Avail ebook/print Aug 26, 2008)
www.terrywildeteenbooks.com Deadly Liaisons (coming Fall 08)

Category: | 04/03/08 06:59 PM
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Comments: [4]

  1. 1 sami lee

    Good advice Terry. I’m not a fan of flashbacks myself. I think it would have to be absolutely essential to the story to justify putting one in.

    Comment by sami lee · Apr 4, 02:45 AM
  2. 2 Terry Spear

    I so agree, Sami! One of the stories I didn’t care for was Oceans 12, and the other variations. The constant flashbacks made it disjointed for me. Maybe one or two, but having so many ruined the flow of the story. It’s hard to get into the character when this happens. :)

    Comment by Terry Spear · Apr 4, 08:48 AM
  3. 3 Lindsay Downs

    I agree that flashbacks can slow the story and can make it come to a complete stop. If you have a flashback it is a story, telling, and how can there be dialogue. One person is telling the story not several. If the author wants to have something in the past included then have it in a ‘prologue’. There the writer can have dialogue.

    Comment by Lindsay Downs · Apr 4, 09:44 AM
  4. 4 Jess Dee

    I’m with you on the flashback bit. It yanks the readers out the story, and throws them somewhere they don’t want to be. I find myself resenting the author for doing that.

    Still, as a writer, I often find myself doing the same thing. It’s that need to get the backstory in, and make sure the reader knows what happened way back when. (Big mistake.)

    Jess

    Comment by Jess Dee · Apr 5, 08:08 AM

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