Josie and the Flashbacks

The past couple weeks I’ve been thinking about flashbacks. I recently did a critique on a manuscript where the entire second chapter was a flashback. It was really well written, so it almost worked—almost being the key word there. As a reader, I wanted to skip that chapter and get on to the next one, which continued the present-time story. The flashback just got in the way.

So I’ve been pondering why, and when, flashbacks should be used. I know some authors are vehemently opposed. I’m not sure being so rigid about anything is a good idea—it closes you off to possibilities. 

In all pondering, I came up with one rule as far as flashbacks are concerned: they shouldn't interrupt the flow of the story. And they need to have a definite purpose, very specific and honed.*

Buy it, especially if you like Desperate Housewives, women’s fiction, excellent writing and storytelling, children, asshole men, or diverting literature.

A good example of a flashback done well was in a book I just read: Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives by Josie Brown. Last weekend I talked with Josie about that scene. She added it as an afterthought, because she thought her heroine’s conflict/motivation needed a little shoring up, so that the reader felt the doubts the heroine (Lyssa) has about her marriage. As a flashback, it's woven in very cleverly: 

To be honest with you, our union has been fragile since day one. 

He told me so himself, five years into our marriage, as we lolled, naked, late one night in our new backyard hot tub, our inhibitions loose by the roiling steam, a pitcher of frozen margaritas, and the knowledge that Tanner, then three, was fast asleep.

“Are you in love with me?” I asked casually. I guess I was anticipating a declaration of undying devotion.

Instead he paused—only a second, but even that was too long for a woman who is always waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under her.

“Yeah, sure. I love you.” 

It packs a punch, doesn't it? In a few lines, you...

1. get that the foundation of Lyssa’s marriage is shaky in such an ambiguous way that you aren’t sure what she should do; 
2. and find out that her husband obviously hasn’t done anything worthy of her taking action about.

Lyssa's doubt about it all is more like a small niggle in the back of her—and your—mind. It sets up the future conflict without getting lost in the past.

Do you have feelings about flashbacks, one way or another? Do you like reading them, or do they get in your way? Do you wish I'd written a more frivolous post?**

* I know—that's two rules. I'd fix what I have written, but I'm too lazy at the moment. 

** I can't always be frivolous. I have a serious side too. Okay, maybe I don't so much, but I like to put my glasses on and pretend.