Two Ways to Introduce Flashbacks: That Emphasize Very Different Things

the past meets the present

Continuing my series of posts about time and fiction, I couldn’t avoid taking up a topic I’ve explored before: the flashback. When it comes to dealing with time in our stories, I think there are two majors things we have to consider, and this is just as true for flashbacks as it is for any other time-related issue:

1. Keeping the mechanics of time correct (years, seasons, hours, etc. We don’t want someone aging a decade in three years or winter becoming summer.)
2. Portraying the passage of time in a way that emphasizes things we consider important and suits our aims better than other ones could have chosen.

Part of number two, where flashbacks is concerned, is how you transition into them. Here are two methods to transition into flashbacks that, though common, might prove useful:

THE TRIGGER

Flashbacks are sometimes looked down upon as cheap…