That is pretty much what I have been trying to do with this series because one lone flashback that serves as a future clue is NOT the same as a looping timeline or a parallel timeline. And Memento WAS awesome, but it probably a movie we can get away with about once 🙂 .

I am using the standard vocabulary that is used today outside of an MFA program. When you read screenwriting books or take classes or read writing guides, frequently any deviation in time gets called a flashback. I’ve been doing this many years and taught at countless conferences. New writers lump everything into “flashback” (and editors can be guilty, too) so as a teacher I meet them where they are. I know they have different literary names, but I make my own terms because I like making the language clearer. I find it fun. It is a creative way of communicating an IDEA. I.e. “Digression” to me is too amorphous. When I learned plotting, I ran into the same issue. FOR ME, the standard terminology was too nonspecific. For instance, antagonist and villain were used interchangeably. That is why, as a teacher, I come up with colorful names and definitions because they make the concepts clearer. Teaching, like anything evolves. I can simply regurgitate the same terms or I can seek new and interesting ways to get the job done. Why CARES what it is called if the student understands the idea?

For instance, I tutored Chemistry for many years. I got all the hopeless students and quickly turned failing students into A students. Why? I tossed out the “standard” and “accepted” way of relaying the information and made it fun. At the end of the day, who cared HOW the students learned, just that they learned.

And if you don’t care for the way I teach, that is your prerogative. I will say, however, that being condescending is unnecessary to make a point. It is unkind and not needed.

Now look, I’m not disagreeing with the advice given here. Honestly, I think DIGRESSIONS are exceptionally boring in most commercial fiction that I read and review. However, I think that anyone giving advice on how to write fiction should at least know the accepted terminology, so that instead of scaring potential authors away from using one of the most prevalent literary devices in CONTEMPORARY FICTION, he or she can guide writers towards more artistic or commercially viable options.

By the way, it was ARISTOTLE, a GREEK that first warned against traveling back in time in fiction. Ever read Poetics? That is why he praised Tragedy and denounced Epic poetry. YOU ARE NOT THE FIRST PERSON TO DO THIS. Interesting that CONTEMPORARY audiences flocked to the movie TROY, based off of the ILIAD, AN EPIC THAT USED FLASHBACK and PARALLEL STRUCTURE, but only know about Oedipus because of Freud. (Feel free to google Oedipus. Yes, it was a Greek Tragedy before it was a complex).

While boning up on your literary devices, I’d also recommend reading Lodovico Castelvetro . You might get some ideas from him. He went so far as to say that time limits should be given to fiction (He actually said this about drama, but it’s all the same really). Look up the term UNITY OF TIME. Maybe contemporary audiences only have the intelligence for fiction that transpires within a 24 hour period, or twelve depending on how you DEFINE a day. I doubt you get the joke. No biggie. Just look up the term.

See, and I don’t agree wholly, which is why I wrote this post. We use the term “Flashback” to include EVERY instance of bending of time and that isn’t the case. New writers don’t know how to do it and it doesn’t serve the story, which is why I was trying to differentiate a “training wheel flashback.” For me, semantics and specific language helps. As long as every writing instructor kept using the term “antagonist” and then using “villain” as a synonym? I had a brain cramp. Because yes, every scene MUST have an antagonist, but a VILLAIN? HUH?

Flashbacks are another term that gave me a brain cramp. Great authors go back in time all the time and do it WELL. What is the difference?

We can use a quick test to see if that flashback is serving the story, or acting as literary Bond-O. THAT is the sucker I am choosing to label the “training wheel flashback” for sake of clarity.

And while we may have books or movies we love that go back in time, remember that those are the pieces that MADE it past the slush, meaning they bent time WELL. I have edited THOUSANDS of writers and most had NO CLUE how to bend time. And while it is great to be natural at a skill, that isn’t given for all of us.

For instance, I naturally write GREAT dialogue. Don’t really need instruction. Other areas? I was really weak and needed a good teacher.

We CAN go back in time, but some of us need to learn how to do it well.

And I ALWAYS try to say that we CAN do everything. There really are no hard and fast rules. But we DO need to know why a rule is there so we can break it with intention. If I just say, “No flashbacks in the first pages because it will ruin your hook”, then one of four things will happen. 1) The writer will wait at least 10-15 pages to give us time to get grounded and then shift 2) cut the shift 3) not get feelings hurt when the shift is cut because they know WHY 4) somehow write the time shift SO well that they successfully break the rule because they KNEW they had to work extra hard on that area.

Oh, and by the way, I am just offering help and guidance and y’all can disagree with me. Often you will find we really don’t disagree, but I never take it personally 😀 .

Thank you for your wisdom!
Tamara