Flashbacking

[thewordcrafter]

It has come to my attention that doing "flashbacks" in my manuscript is a no no and that I should remove them. Jeff has written about this and seems to be adamant about murdering all flashbacks. But I wonder if what I'm doing may be different than a standard flashback.

What I have are parallel stories that intertwine. Yes, they are technically flashbacks but they are the soul and the driving force behind the main story. For other examples of what I'm doing, there are Dekker's Obsessed and Thr3e, and Peretti's The Visitation. All of these have flashbacks that are more than flashbacks. If you take them out, you lose the foundation of the main story. In this instance, does this cease to fall under a "flashback" category and become a "multiple storyline"?

That's what's happening in my book, so I just wanted to see what others thought. I am prepared for this to be the hill I die on, as I am not prepared to rip the soul of this story out and turn it into some fast-food Christian fiction without any depth.

[isabeau]

I think you can pull any published book off a bookstore shelf and find any number of "rules" of writing that the author has broken. I've had some editors criticize elements of my writing that others have had no problem with. The rules can seem quite subjective. I personally hold to C.J. Cherryh's "rule" that viewpoint characters have far less description than other characters. But you can no doubt find a dozen other professionals who would scoff at that. Anyway....

Only you can write your story, so write it the way you feel it needs to be written. That being said, is it possible to split it into two separate stories, so that the flashback portions are their own, self-contained work, like a prequel?

[thewordcrafter]

I could... but it would really change the whole dynamic of the story. For one, it would split a four book series into 8, and the one "current" time story of this book would be come number 5 in the series. And two, it would be like eating a PB&J sandwhich jelly bread and PB bread seperate and eaten one at a time.

[isabeau]

I'm not sure what to tell you, except to write what you feel you need to write. Speaking as a reader, I'm not a fan of flashbacks. I find them jarring and I dislike being taken out of the current story, especially if it's compelling. One of my favorite Star Trek novels, Spock's World, alternates its current story with a flashback/parallel story recounting the history of Vulcan. I found being ripped away from the current story so disquieting that I skipped the history chapters altogether.

[metalikhan]

I agree — it's very subjective. I've read novels in which up to half of the story is technically flashback (or alternate storyline in the past, label it how you wish). How the author handles the intertwining past and present is fascinating. (Stephen King has flashbacks in the Dark Tower series that are in present tense — double no-no!) Many of those novels could not have survived being split apart or having the flashbacks removed.

Is it cultural impatience? For my part, sure, there are books I like to hop into, stomp the accelerator, and race through like I'm going over the Salt Flats. I don't mind superficial acquaintance with the characters in them. But there are plenty more stories I enjoy strolling through, savoring the rich textures of the writing and plot, exploring the by-ways and crannies, and even revisiting. Many of those break other "rules" as well, sometimes using present tense (gasp), occasional second person POV (the horror!), telling (say it's not so!). Anyone who's braved experimental fiction can tell you that a lot of "rules" can get knotted more intricately than an oriental constellation button.

Do real people never have flashbacks, memories of the past? Do they never examine their own history to understand or function in the present? It's an especially tricky aspect of writing if any of your characters (including the MC) are older characters — the older a person gets, the more bearing the past has on their thought life and actions, the more consciously they think about the past.

To write a character that is totally in the story's "now" often deprives that character of the experiences and quirks rooted in personal history making him or her unique, particularly if some part of it is a driving force for the character or the plot. It seems one of two things usually result: the reader views the character as a stereotype out of his/her own knowledge or the reader asks Why did this character do such & such? or How could the character know this? (especially knowledge outside the timeframe of the story).

You have to know or understand audience you want to target. If you know the audience doesn't have the patience to sink into a complex, interwoven plot, you can't expect them to suddenly embrace that kind of writing. If you know one publisher rejects any story with flashbacks while another accepts stories with flashbacks, you mustn't be disappointed if the first doesn’t like the story. To borrow an uncle's saying, don't give grilled sirloin to a dairy cow.

Is this a story God placed in your heart? Write it for Him, the audience of One. With or without flashbacks, write your very best to please Him first. Trust in Him to bring it before the audience He chooses in the time of His choosing.

[journeyman]

I agree with metalikhan, write your best as an act of worship for an audience of One. Don't sweat the rest.

There is a lovely story about a woman who could not sing worship songs on key. Many in her church were offended by her off-key caterwauling until by revelation her pastor heard what the LORD heard in her singing -- her heart song.

Now I'm NOT saying that your writing is bad. What I am saying is that if you wrote to please Him, then He is pleased because he knows your heart. In fact scripture tells us that He delights in us. I can almost hear Him say, "Do you know my son thewordcrafter is a writer and he wrote a story just to please Me? I am so pleased that he loves Me."

If your storytelling works, don't sweat it. Someone will always be there to tell you how it could have been done better. Don't be troubled. Be humble. Take the good advice and use it for your next book and ignore the bad advice that jars your spirit. Don't second-guess yourself about this story because of something you read. Let your editor tell you what needs to be done.

The publishing process as I understand it will require edits for clarity's sake and a desirable length. Even the best-selling authors know that their editors will cut out what they regard as weeds that hide the beauty of their stories.

Clive Cussler wrote himself into a book to give his character Dirk Pitt a clue. He wrote it, believing that his editor would cut it out, and to his surprise the editor left it in. Cussler's fans loved it. It is now a part of every Dirk Pitt story. Go figure. I find it a little jarring, because I'm reminded it's fiction and it takes a minute to get back into the story. But I'm not Cussler and it does work for Cussler. It hasn't hurt his book sales in the least. :-)

[Jeff Gerke]

One novel that does something close to what you're describing is Marduk's Tablet by T.L. Higley.

In this book, a modern-day archaeologist-type character touches an ancient tablet and enters into dream states in which she's riding in the mind of a priestess living in Babylon millennia ago. The two storylines cut back and forth. Higley does this very well and it completely works.

Note that I'm not agin' all flashbacks. I'm merely pointing out that most novelists turn to flashbacks as exposition and backstory--literally--that amount to telling. They insist on forcing the reader to read information that doesn't advance the current story and indeed stops the current story while the author goes on a private excursus.

The reader really doesn't care or need to know all about how the character got to be like this. Just like if you're interviewing a woman about how she helped a person in a car accident but before she'll tell you that she forces you to listen to a three-hour recounting of her upbringing.

;D

Jeff

[Grace Bridges]

If it's a true double-plot story then you should be fine, because each time you change over doesn't stop the story dead but rather carries it on with the same momentum in a different place. I'm guessing the two are connected, and you'll want to include hints of that fairly early on and increasing as you go, but not so obvious that everyone guesses it straight off. Make sense? lol

[thewordcrafter]

The story, if I may share a little (I'm sure you all read the info for Winter in the premise contest), is really about Winter's fall and redemption. I chose to tell this by showing two different times in her life. As a college freshman she is a Christian with the gift of prophecy, and finds herself battling a Satanic priest. As a high school freshman she deals emotional with the slow death of her mother and living with her enstranged dad, that leads to her decline into Goth.

You could easily say that the main story is the college story and the second story is not needed. But you would miss the point. The story is about Winter. And yes they are connected and I parallel events in both, to show the duelistic inversion of her life.

In Jeff's car crash example, I'm not just telling you an account of her upbringing prior to helping a person out of the car. I'm showing you someone who was once helped out of car, overcame phisical and emotional scars, learned how to not fear driving again, and when she finally does she has to help someone the way she was once helped. Now the story is not about a person pulling someone from a car, it's about the person.

Does that make sense?

[pixydust]

To throw a small wrench in, it sounds to me like you may actually be writing one story with a bunch of flashbacks. This isn't to say you need to change it all. Just go over the ms in your mind and look at it from a few different angles you may not have considered. Breaking the rules is fine as long as you know how to work within them first.

The past is important to understand the path ahead, but it isn't as important as most writers think. Some things are more powerful when we only see a glimpse.

Sounds like an interesting premise. I'd be happy to check it out and let you know what I think. I missed a lot of the contest fun.

Love the cover, BTW.