200 - Flashback Memories

A couple of weeks ago I missed my 2nd anniversary of blogging.  Fancy forgetting that and missing the opportunity for a celebration! However this is another milestone - Post No. 200. 

It's been fun meeting people through this blog and via their comments and emails, and also meeting them on Twitter and the occasional forum. Thanks for reading and here's to another hundred posts. Actually that's quite a daunting thought. I started blogging just before Driftwood was published, so it was a very exciting few months with lots happening, and so obviously lots to write about. 

There have been plenty of times I've hit a blank spot when I've tried to write a post, but as with any type of writing, the more often you write (rather than thinking about writing), the more open you are to those triggers, thoughts and inspiration. 

When I don't write regularly those flashes of inspiration seem to disappear.  What I've realised is that they're always happening, it's more that I'm not in such a receptive mood and don't notice them.  That's certainly a great reason for writing often.

Recently a friend commented she'd planted pea seedlings in her garden.  My dad loved gardening, and when I was little he planted peas every year.  He rarely got more than one cooked meal of peas because my mother and I loved eating them as 'sugar snaps'.  I remember us so clearly in the garden. My mother would be hanging out the washing or some other job and I would be on the swing, and then we'd have a look at the plants to see if there were any peas just right for picking and eating.

We didn't have a very large garden, but it was a treasure trove of things to eat as my dad had various fruit bushes: blackcurrants, red currents, raspberries, gooseberries, as well as an apple and pear tree.

He always did wonder how come the peas only produced enough for one meal each year. 

My mum died just over a year ago and this was a very special memory, something I'd not thought about for years and triggered by a mention of a friend planting peas.

In my first draft of Driftwood I had large chunks of backstory as sections. In subsequent drafts these became flashbacks, and finally through an assessment and editing some were removed and others cut down to what was absolutely necessary.

We often use flashbacks as a way of dumping backstory into our manuscript, and as a reader this often makes me skim over that part. There is a place for flashbacks, but they should be used carefully, and after honestly answering the question - Does the reader NEED to know this?

The other point that occurred to me, after thinking about my mother and I eating those pea pods, was the way the memory made me feel. I don't think I've really considered this while writing, but if our protagonist has been reminded of something that happened in their past, how does it make them feel? It may change their mood - they may have been happy, but the memory could stir feelings of anger, regret, sadness, and therefore change the way the rest of the scene continues.

My memory was a happy one, and it made me feel good.
  

What You Need, When You Need It

We watched the film Cleanskin on DVD recently. It's a terrorist shoot 'em up, guns and bombs thriller. Yes, you've guessed right, it wasn't my turn to choose!

I won't go into the plot in any detail, but I wanted to write about one thing that surprised me.

The film started in the expected manner with a shoot out, even though we didn't yet know who the characters were, and therefore who we should want to win. I guess that having Sean Bean on one side was the clue.

In succeeding scenes we find out the reason for the shoot out, and meet some of the other characters, in particular a young man called Ash. Later he recognises a woman in a bar, and from their conversation and the meaningful looks they exchange we understand they had a serious relationship in the past, and that it didn't end well.  BUT, just to make sure we get the message, we are taken out of the current plot and go back several years to see their early relationship unfold. 

Back in the present plot we have a bit more action, and then we are taken back several years again to see how Ash became involved with the group. I didn't time this second 'flashback' but it was must have been 5-10 minutes at least. From what we see in the 'present plot' of the film we can put two and two together and do without the flashbacks.

One of the first writing 'rules' we learn is not to drop in huge chunks of backstory, and both those in the film would have been at least a chapter!

It is hard to murder your darlings, but watching this film made it so obvious why we need to do just that.

It's not a bad film, but I didn't think it required the info dumps. We can read the situation about the relationship from the body language and dialogue of the two actors, and the second we can put together ourselves.

I found this a good reminder that information we might feel is vital for the readers is not always necessary. Get your writing group or beta readers to read extracts without the backstory, if they can understand what's going on without the backstory, then you've done your job well. 

Drip-feed only what is absolutely necessary, and only when it is absolutely required.

Examples of Backstory

A few evenings ago I watched the first episode of a new series - to be honest it was a new series several years ago, I tend to find these things long after everyone else. The series is a spin-off, with the supporting character of the original series now taking the main role.

This is a example of where a writer might want to throw in a lot of backstory.

The opening shots were of a passenger aircraft landing, and then the main character (a Detective Inspector) being met in Arrivals, by a Detective Sergeant. They haven't met before, and so with the difference in rank and age they aren't very comfortable with each other. To make conversation while he is driving the young DS says, 'I expect there's been some changes in three years.'

Nice one. We now know there's been a period of three years since we last saw this character, and that he's been out of the country for that length of time.

The DI replies, 'The changes all happened before I left.'

Ah - so it wasn't an extended holiday, or a pleasure trip around the world.

The DI asks the DS to take a short detour, and we next see him standing in front of a grave. The camera shot moves to the headstone, and we see the name of the Inspector's wife. Another piece of information skilfully and briefly inserted.

If writing a novel we might have filled our first chapter with lots of backstory about the death, and the Inspector's decision to take a secondment to another country, but in two lines of dialogue and a brief shot we have all we need to know at this point.

We have to wait until the DI is talking to someone impacted by a murder before we find out his wife was killed by a hit and run driver.  Not only are we given this information, but we see the DI is angry the driver hasn't been found, and that he is compassionate with others, even though his wife's killer will probably never be caught.

I thought these were excellent ways to give the viewer just the information they needed, and exactly when it was required, rather than writing a chapter of backstory.

There is lots of advice on backstory, namely not piling huge chunks of it in the opening chapter, or at any place in your novel, but I thought this was a great example of the advice in action.

I don't worry too much about backstory in my first drafts. There is often a lot of information through it that I needed to know, though I'm getting better at putting this in my planning, and leaving it out of the writing. Subsequent drafts are where you need to cut everything that isn't needed, and then place only what is needed, when the reader needs to know it.