Flashback, Timey-Wimey, Wibbly-Wobbly.

The Catcher in the Rye.

Handmaid’s Tale.

Rhapsodic.

To Kill a Mockingbird.

Johnny Got His Gun.

A few weeks ago, in a Facebook group on writing I frequent, a user posted something along the lines of: I keep seeing people telling writers to NEVER include flashbacks… But my novel doesn’t make sense without flashbacks!

A slew of well-wishing authors-to-be jumped into the comments with their advice: “I skip every flashback I come across; they’re wastes of time.” “Flashbacks are for the writer and never for the reader.” “Cut them all. If you don’t have a story without the flashbacks, you didn’t have a story with the flashbacks.”

There wasn’t really anyone “in favor of” the flashback… Well, until me. I tried to point out that we should decide when to use them, and use them to the best of their ability—but then I got growled at.

I keep thinking back to that post, to the point that I’m now blogging about it.

The five novels above, all bestsellers, use the flashback extensively. Without them, the books would suffer. You couldn’t just “skip every flashback” and have the same impact when reading the story.

As part of my workday, I spend a few hours a week in study. I read how-to-write books, and study one with a “co-worker” every other week. I attend workshops; I watch seminars. Right now, my co-worker and I are studying a writing guide called Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff Vandermeer.

Compared to the other how-to-write books I’ve read, he breaks ALL the rules. Over and over, he gives the rules, then illustrates how to break them. We are just finishing up Chapter 4, which centers on Narrative Design, in which Vandermeer says, “Time in fiction is one of the most liberating, mysterious, and potentially ecstatic powers available to the writer.”

I still get chills reading those words because they’re true.

Having the excruciating time stop in the middle of a violent scene, skipping twenty years so Claire can raise Brianna, swapping back and forth between seven years every other chapter. Playing with time is an essential tool to have in our toolboxes!

Now… using it right is a vastly different problem.