When you choose to use a flashback in your story, you should make sure that is the most effective way of revealing that information. You may even want to flashback to a previous scene to describe it from a different character’s perspective. You may need a flashback to show a particularly impactful moment of a character’s childhood, or maybe you could use a flashback to show how a crime was committed as a detective examines the evidence. With that said, flashbacks have many uses in fiction, so the purpose of a specific flashback depends on the story utilizing it, as well as the scene in which it takes place.

Flashbacks should support the plot by contributing necessary context that the reader wouldn’t have had otherwise. The point of a flashback is to give readers special insight into how an event from the past played out, so they can draw connections between that event and what is going on in the present storyline. If you need a more in-depth explanation of what showing entails, I recommend checking out Show, Don’t Tell: What It Is and How to Use It (With Examples). Readers should feel as if they are being transported back in time to witness this scene. Flashbacks should play out like any other kind of scene, allowing readers to experience it first-hand. In order for a scene to be considered a flashback, it needs to show readers what happened. It is important to remember that you cannot simply explain something that happened in the past and call it a flashback. A scene could also transition into a flashback when a character begins telling a tale of their past adventures or an event that they witnessed. Other times, a flashback is justified through the use of secondary elements like diaries, history books, folk tales, and other things. Many times, flashbacks are written into a story using the characters’ behaviors, such as dreaming, reminiscing, or examining parts of the past. Jumping right into a flashback scene with no exposition can be pretty jarring to readers, so you should give some indication that a flashback is coming up. Usually, these scenes are from before the beginning of the story, but in longer works, they can also be a retelling of previous scenes. 5 Some Parting Thoughts on Using Flashbacks in Your Story What is a Flashback?Ī flashback is a scene from the past that interrupts the chronological progression of a story.

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