Writing Better Part 8

WEAVING DESCRIPTION INTO THE NARRATIVE

Most people don’t take in all the details of a person or location at a glance. They generally see one or two important details first, and only gradually become aware of the rest. In fiction, describing a whole room or individual all at once slows the pace. Better to scatter important details throughout a scene and allow the reader to fill in the rest.

THE FLASHBACK

FLASHBACKS

The flashback lacks immediacy, but offsetting this inherent disadvantage are the several advantages a good flashback can bring to a story:

01) It can make plausible a character’s motives, by showing what events in his past compel him to act the way he is now;

02) It can fill in events that show how the story reached the exciting state it’s in now;

03) And it can present crucial information that happened so long ago - years or even decades - that there is simply no other way to include it.

To do "time travel" right:

01) Your flashback should follow a strong scene. This means a flashback is never the first scene, because readers must care about a character’s present before they can be expected to care about his past;

02) Orient the reader at the start of the flashback in time and space - a reader who is expending energy trying to figure out where and when she is now is not able to engage with your story;

03) Use verb tense conventions to guide readers into and out of flashbacks. (See VERB TENSES IN FLASHBACKS BELOW.)

(A frame story is one long flashback - the story of something which happens in the past "framed" by the narrator’s recollections of events.)

FRAME STORIES

A frame story begins after all the action is over. A half-frame story omits either the beginning frame or the ending one.

Two reasons not to frame:

01) The story loses tension;

02) Frame stories force the story to start twice.

Two reasons to frame:

01) Added depth and texture;

02) Used properly, frame stories can build tension. By choosing carefully which pieces of the ending to reveal in the beginning frame, you can whet your readers’ appetites.

Four crucial guidelines:

01) Frames work best in stories where character is at least as important as plot;

02) Don’t reveal the whole plot in the frame;

03) Never reveal the climax in your beginning frame;

04) Keep any ending frame short.

VERB TENSES IN FLASHBACKS

When it comes to dealing with verb tenses in flashbacks or with a character’s thoughts, smoothness counts;

01) The flashback - most fiction is told in past tense. To transition from story to flashback, use past-perfect ("had" followed by a verb) two or three times to start and end the flashback, but write the bulk of it in simple past tense. For a story written in present tense, write the flashback in simple past;

02) Thoughts - in first person, representing a character’s thoughts is no problem because the whole story is his or her perceptions of the action. (And don’t use "I thought" at all.) For third person, how you present the character’s thoughts will depend on the overall tone and mood of the story, and your own personal writing style preferences.

WEAVING PAST INTO PRESENT

Using the present scene’s mood and circumstances to segue into flashbacks will connect present with past and build a seamless story. Flashbacks not only convey bare facts of your characters’ pasts, they let your readers experience the emotional moments that shape who your characters are