Flashbacks in fiction are simply scenes from the past. If a story begins at Point A and finishes some time later at Point Z, a flashback is a scene that happened before Point A, usually many years before.
Notice the word scene. In exposition, you tell the readers something about a fictional character’s past. But in flashbacks, you show them in the form of a fully dramatized scene.
Do you need to use flashbacks in a novel?
Absolutely not. In fact, if you can tell the story without them then so much the better.
You see, what the readers are really interested in is the present story (which runs between points A and Z). Anything which interferes with this is a distraction.
So if the episode from a character’s past can be told in a few lines of exposition (telling it, not showing it) then that is what you should do.
If you have no option but to use dramatized flashbacks in your fiction, here are three things you must do…
Explanation:
