How to Write a Flashback Without Losing the Reader

What is a flashback? Narrative theory and foundations.

We need to start by locking down our definitions.

And to do that, we're using the precise terminology of French narratologist Gerard Jeannette.

He defines any break in the chronological order of a story as an anachrony.

He separates jumps to the past, which he calls analepsis, from jumps to the future, known as prolepsis.

And this is vital to understand.

A true flashback isn't just a passing sentence about a memory.

No, it's a full narrative stop that rebuilds a past moment as a fully lived scene.

Jeannette actually gives us specific criteria for categorizing these flashbacks.

It cleanly separates the duration of the memory, which is the extent, like, say, a single afternoon, from exactly how far back we jump, which is the reach, like 22 years.

It also gives us tools to classify them based on when they occur relative to our main story, giving us external, internal, and completing analepsis.

What is a flashback? Narrative theory and foundations.

We need to start by locking down our definitions.

And to do that, we're using the precise terminology of French narratologist Gerard Jeannette.

He defines any break in the chronological order of a story as an anachrony.

He separates jumps to the past, which he calls analepsis, from jumps to the future, known as prolepsis.

And this is vital to understand.

A true flashback isn't just a passing sentence about a memory.

No, it's a full narrative stop that rebuilds a past moment as a fully lived scene.

Jeannette actually gives us specific criteria for categorizing these flashbacks.

It cleanly separates the duration of the memory, which is the extent, like, say, a single afternoon, from exactly how far back we jump, which is the reach, like 22 years.

It also gives us tools to classify them based on when they occur relative to our main story, giving us external, internal, and completing analepsis.