Stein On Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies

by Sol Stein

A flashback is any scene that happened before the present story began. Note that I said any scene. A true flashback, however short, is a scene, preferably with characters in conflict. If you find that you absolutely must use a flashback, there are a number of points to engrave on your mind: • A flashback must illuminate the present story in an important way. Otherwise, why bother? If it doesn’t enhance the present story markedly, you may not really need it. • Whenever possible, the flashback should be an immediate scene rather than an offstage narrative summary. The reader needs to witness the flashback rather than be told about what happened. • You can go into a flashback directly or segue into it. The object is to make the transition to the flashback as unobtrusive as possible. Slipping into the flashback quickly avoids the risk of the impatient reader skipping pages because he sees the flashback coming before it grips him. • The first sentence of a flashback needs to be arresting. A flashback is presumably there because it provides information. To the reader that information should not come across as information about the past; it should be as immediate and gripping as a scene in the present.