Backstory is the backbone of story – without it, your characters are nothing. Their past experiences and decisions have shaped them to be who they are today. All the vital components of your characters – their desires, fears, and misbeliefs – are rooted in their backstory.

Unless you’re writing a complete biography for your character, it’s difficult to know where to include the important bits of their backstory. We want to give more context and meaning to the current story, but we also don’t want to distract from what’s happening real-time and interrupt the flow of the narrative. Backstory is important, but it’s not the story that’s happening right now — thus, when you insert flashbacks to anything that isn’t the current story…it’s a deviation.

Flashbacks hit the pause button on what’s happening right now and transport the reader into a different moment in time. Which sounds like it would be jarring. And sometimes it is — when it’s not done right. But it can be done right, and that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

Flashbacks are a tricky topic in the writing world. Some people think you ought to avoid them altogether. But I couldn’t disagree more! After all, your characters’ backstory has made them who they are today. Just like you and I, they have literal neurological connections in their brain, telling them what’s true and false. These beliefs determine all the decisions they’re going to make in the current story, so it’s crucial that the reader know why the characters are making these decisions. Why it matters to the characters.

So that’s what today’s episode of WritersLife Wednesdays is all about…

• how to insert flashbacks into your story without jarring your reader’s brain
• what makes a flashback “poorly written” and how to avoid this
• the 2 elements every flashback needs to feel seamless
• why backstory is so important to your current story
• how I pulled off tons of flashbacks in my own novel

Let’s talk.

Let’s talk flashbacks! What is the most pivotal moment of your character’s backstory that shaped them to be the person they are today? Hint: you should probably figure out where to insert it in your actual book!

If you liked this episode of WritersLife Wednesday, please share it with a writer friend! Also be sure to subscribe to my channel to get new videos every Wednesday all about writing, publishing, and making your author dreams come true.

Rock on,
Abbie

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