I'm in the middle of outlining a novel that takes place 25 years after a group of friends graduated from high school. There are some important events and scenes that need to take place previously to make the current story make sense so I'm trying to decide if I should use flashbacks to tell those bits and pieces or if I should start the novel earlier. The important bits come from the friends last semester of high school through that summer and do come up again later in the story but I feel like if I throw it in as flashbacks it wouldn't work as well as if I put it in the beginning. Just looking for other writers opinions on what they would do. Thanks!
I've run into this conundrum once myself. It was one of the rare instances where I needed to stop and start over. The original story began with an explanation of events that led up to the present situation, which is a boring, unengaging infodump. It just dawned on me after the first 500 words or so that the events being described was where the story really needed to begin. That's not the same as flashbacks, and that might work just fine if the present setting is interesting off the bat, and intriguing nuggets from the past can be dropped in here and there. Either can work if done well, though I recommend opening the story in the past, and of course introducing that inciting incident straight away. Time jumps aren't a problem. Plenty of good stories open like this and then move to "X years later..." after a few chapters. Just one feller's opinion of course.
I agree with Set2Stun. If one of those important events you refer to would make a great start then it makes sense to open with it. I am currently plotting a prequel to a series of three books. I started with the past because the incident from that time made for a great opening. I then jump to present day before going back to the past for most of the book, closing with present day. Initially I opened with present day before realising that the incident from the past made for a much better opening. It all really depends on how good an opening these past events would make. Just my thoughts. Others may differ.
When I did a boring flashback in one of my stories, I ended up cutting it out entirely and incorporated revealing past events organically into the dialogue of the present, which worked a lot better. Either can work, depending how they're executed.
Flashbacks can be a bit tricky to avoid an infodump, although it's more of a "natural" one if character(s) are recalling a memory. Revealing past events in dialogue is another good option, but you might end up with characters having long conversations, or talking more often, to fit in all the backstory you need (this isn't a bad thing, just can lead to more interaction, which can be a challenge if you need to reveal something between characters who aren't in the same scene. I ran into that recently, and had to "force" one of my characters in there.) Prologues are another way to do it. I've seen a lot of booktubers & readers/reviewers give prologues a bad rap, mostly because they claim it's overused. I personally don't mind them, especially if they serve the story and properly set up future events. I'm currently in a very similar dilemma with my WIP. I'm trying a hybrid approach...a little key backstory right away, more in dialogue throughout, and a short flashback or two. Not sure how it will all work out yet, but we'll see.
The trick to avoiding that is to not reveal it all at once. Reveal parts of it naturally *when they come up*, don't force the dialogue into an excuse to reveal everything in one go.
