Flashbacks

"When you reach a moment of truth in such a story, you realize that that literary instant results from a confluence of a hundred facts and circumstances you've read earlier in the story. Every iota is a related, orderly part of a whole that cannot be taken out without damaging the overall structure. When you read a work that gives you this feeling, you know it was written by a master of transition." --James V. Smith, Jr.

Flashbacks are brief scenes of past events that take place before the main action of the novel. They're used to explain motivations, character histories, background influences, or information that cannot be told during the linear sequence of a story. If a character is an adult when the novel begins, flashbacks are sometimes necessary to reveal how she or he evolved. The best flashbacks are small scenes, whole and sensory.

TECHNIQUES: The most effective flashbacks have a catalyst or device-a song, place, person, a sensory stimulation, an event that plunges the character into a memory. The key to writing flashbacks is that they must be integrated into the plot, while casting light on an issue or character. Make the transition in and out of the flashback graceful. Use the past perfect tense (had been) as a doorway to the past, a signal to readers that you're moving backward in time. Once it's clear to the reader that you've returned in time, write in the simple past tense. When you're ready to rejoin the story, use another doorway or device to slip into the present again-an unusual word, event, sensory awareness, object.

EXAMPLE: "One autumn night, five years before, they had been walking down the street when the leaves were falling, and they came to a place where there were not trees and the sidewalk was white with moonlight. They stopped here and turned toward each other." (The Great Gatsby)

Sometimes you don't need to use the past perfect tense as a transition.
EXAMPLE: "As she looked deeply into the hypnotist's light, her memories came tumbling back. The night of Gerald's disappearance, she arrived home late, too tired to notice that he was not home before her. Weary from a long day at the hospital, she slipped into bed without giving much thought to her husband's absence".

TIPS:

Remember, no matter how intriguing, flashbacks stop the story, so use sparingly.
Make certain that the flashback is somehow related to present action.
Avoid using flashbacks. Don't rely on them to fill in backstory. There are often more effective and artful ways of revealing information.
Make certain that the plot, characters and conflict are thoroughly introduced before introducing a flashback.
Never insert a flashback in the middle of an emotional or eventful action.
Never use flashbacks in climatic scenes.
Do not use flashback solely to characterize and thus replace dramatic scenes.
Be brief. Illustrate the information, then quickly get back to the story.