Write a flashback that shapes your character’s choice

Writers often use a flashback to explain why a character does something. The story stops, a chunk of backstory follows, and then the scene picks up again. But by then the reader has forgotten why that scene started in the first place.

That last part doesn’t have to happen. A flashback can interrupt an action at exactly the moment the past comes into play. A sound, a smell, or an object in the present doesn’t just trigger a memory: it can affect what the main character decides to do next.

The transitions matter here. Your reader has to be able to tell when you’re writing about the present and when you’re writing about the past, without you starting every paragraph with “she remembered.” Going back to the present also has to serve a purpose. Otherwise the memory is nothing more than a separate little story in the middle of the scene.

In this writing exercise, the flashback can cover only one event from the past. That event gives the main character a reason to make a different choice in the here and now.

Below you’ll find the assignment and the four criteria. Then you can write your own scene and submit it to get feedback right away.

Intermediate exercise: One memory that flips a choice

Write a scene of 320 to 380 words. In the present, your main character is about to get rid of an object. A concrete sensory trigger (a sound, a smell, or a touch, for example) sets off one short memory from at least five years ago. Show that memory as an event, not as an explanation of someone’s childhood. Then clearly return to the same action in the present. Because of what the reader saw in the flashback, your character’s final choice takes on a different meaning. Don’t use years as subheadings, and don’t end with an explanation of the lesson the character has learned.

• Length: 320 to 380 words
• Time: 1 hour

Learning Objective

Practice writing a flashback that serves a purpose: use a sensory trigger, keep the shifts in time clear, and let the past carry through into a choice in the present.

Criteria

• Trigger: the memory starts from a concrete observation in the ongoing scene and doesn’t feel like a random interruption.
• Transitions: without explanatory subheadings, it’s clear when the story moves into the past and when it comes back.
• Relevance: the memory shows one event the reader needs in order to understand the character’s present choice.
• Impact: the present visibly changes because of the memory, without a closing explanation.

Now write your scene with one flashback. When you’re done, read the paragraph before the memory and the paragraph after it, back to back. Does something different happen in the present because the flashback sits between them?

Done? Then paste your scene into the widget. ViaScripta assesses the trigger, the transitions, the relevance, and the impact. You don’t need an account.

Want more practice? Browse the full list of writing exercises.