One of the most valuable but often misunderstood technique, the flashback scene, can strengthen your novel.
Every character in your story has a past. The events that occurred in a character’s life before they ever appear in your story determine their personality, life goals, the way they react to situations, even the way they speak. Your ability to understand your characters’ history, and share glimpses of it with readers, will determine how realistic your paper people will seem. Savvy writers use backstory and flashbacks, special tools to show their audience a character’s motivation, thus bringing them to life on the page. These are powerful, advanced techniques, and yet they are easy to master once you know how.
Live video conference: This workshop will be held via our online video conferencing platform, Zoom. You can view brief tutorials on using the platform here. On the start date or the day before, participants will receive an email with login info (please check your spam if you don’t see it).
In this workshop you’ll learn:
- Where to place backstory
- The difference between good and bad backstory
- Creating effective flashback scenes
- Where flashbacks fail to work
- Using time jumps
Time requirements
- No time required outside of class.
Materials
- All reading materials will be provided.
Who should take this workshop?
- Any writer of fiction, memoir or creative nonfiction who wants to add depth and sophistication to their fiction by varying time sequences.
If you need an accommodation for this workshop, please contact us at access@writer.org. We will attempt to fulfill all requests, but advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility services.
