Flashbacks

Every story has some kind of timeline, and a narrative flashback interrupts this to show what happened in an earlier occurrence. Flashbacks can add details and help readers understand why things are happening now but they should be necessary and relevant to the story. They shouldn’t just be there as filler or because you enjoyed writing the scene.

Flashbacks interrupt the narrative flow so only have one if it provides essential details, advances the plot, or adds some dramatic tension. If you can sum up the information in a sentence or two, then it’s probably not worthy of a flashback.

Using tense

There are a few techniques for showing your flashback but the easiest one is a change in tense.

If you write your story in present tense: you show the action took place in the past by using past tense.

Present tense: She looks at him and smiles. His heart pounds as he reaches for the gun.

Past tense: She looked at him and smiled. His heart pounded as he reached for his gun.

If you write in past tense: then you write your flashback in past perfect tense.

Past perfect tense: She’d looked at him and smiled. His heart had pounded as he’d reached for his gun.

The Problem with “Had”

However, it can get repetitive to read all those “had” phrases, for example, “had looked at him, had smiled, had felt” etc. If it’s repetitive, then your readers are going to lose interest and skip any important details.

There are some solutions to this problem. You can soften the clunkiness by using contractions; he’d, she’d, they’d, and so on. And rather than write everything in past perfect, you can use a mix of tenses to describe the events of the memory. Dialogue of course will always be in present tense.

She’d looked at him and smiled.

His heart had pounded as he reached for his gun. The air hung heavy with the scent of blood. And on the floor, Linh lay motionless.

Eleanor smirked. “Darling. Do you really think a bullet can stop me?”

*You can see how the tense shifts from past perfect to simple past once the scene is established, while the dialogue stays in present tense.

Transition in (triggers)

There should be something in the scene to trigger the memory, rather than just a random train of thought. And the trigger should be relevant to the past event, a sound, scent, piece of dialogue, or visual reminder.

For example, the protagonist smells someone cooking a dish from their childhood. They flashback to when they were in the kitchen, watching their mother make the same dish. During the scene, the mother says something important that connects to what’s happening in the present story.

Flashback content

Keep it focused, impactful, and relevant to the present narrative. There must be a reason you’re using a memory rather than information you could deliver through dialogue or other means.

One or two pages is usually enough and some flashbacks are even shorter. Any longer and you risk your readers becoming disconnected to the present story.

Transition out

To bring your character back into the present, you need another trigger. This could be an “Aha!” moment, another character interrupting them, or a sound or scent that recalls them to their surroundings. Then switch back to your normal tense (for example, from past perfect back to simple past, or from past tense back to present tense).

Don’t forget there should be some kind of emotional payoff. Memories are more than just events that give us information. They are also connections to the past, sometimes tinged with sadness such as recalling a lost love, or happiness remembering your first kiss.

Dos and Don’ts

DO	DON’T
Use flashbacks sparingly.	Use vague triggers (“she remembered…”).
Use a trigger to draw the character into the flashback.	Switch tense inconsistently.
Use something in the present narrative to draw them out of the flashback.	Use more than one flashback in rapid succession.
Use a different tense for the memory.	Use them as fillers.

Final Thoughts

Flashbacks are a great way to give your characters more depth, share essential information, and add emotional impact to your story. But, like many literary devices, they should be used sparingly. Too many flashbacks, or flashbacks that drag on with clunky “had” after “had,” can pull the reader out of the present narrative and make them lose interest in the plot. Keep them short, impactful, and only use them when absolutely necessary.

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