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  1. Thundair

    Thundair Contributor Contributor

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    Flashback

    Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by Thundair, Oct 4, 2018.

    How long can a flashback be...I wrote one that was a reflection, which lasted a complete chapter, and was encouraged to make it a short paragraph.
     
  2. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    There is no right answer to this. A flashback can be anywhere from one line to the majority of a story. Do what you think the story needs. Was there a reason this person suggested condensing a chapter into a short paragraph? I'm not sure that makes so much sense, but, of course, I haven't read it.
     
  3. Thundair

    Thundair Contributor Contributor

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    Yeah it was a copy editor from Reedsy
    Here is what she wrote about the first chapter I sent:

    Sadly I have to pass. I don't think this is ready for copy editing. Chapter One completely threw me because you start active with the girl/woman getting off the ship but then you go into a flashback to tell what happened to her to bring her to this ship (I'm thinking, never really find out in this chapter) but the whole rest of the chapter stays in flashback--telling past events--you never return to the girl leaving the ship walking down the gangplank. Flashbacks should never be this long (and it has too many events), and if you start in a certain scene you must remember to return to that scene.
     
  4. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    Instead of shrinking the flashback, why not move the story start back in time?
     
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  5. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    I'm not familiar with Reedsy, but I guess they wouldn't like Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez which just happens to be the best book ever. If you like what you've got I would test it on a few more readers before you scrap it. You could also take @ChickenFreak 's suggestion because that would work too. But I'm not so sure the person who wrote you really knew what they were talking about.
     
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  6. Thundair

    Thundair Contributor Contributor

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    Good point, it's a lot easier and it doesn't take too much away from the intro..

    I hope it is OK to post the paragraph here, but this was the old:
    The year was 1801, and I was sent to Haiti at the request of the Mother Superior of the Ursuline convent of Rouen. Little did I know when I stepped off the ship that in a few months I would be fleeing for my life.

    And this is the new:
    My mother a beautiful woman who named me Elizabeth, but everyone called me Beth. I was born and raised in Brittany, one of the six Celtic nations.
     
  7. Ashley Watters

    Ashley Watters Member

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    I like both paragraphs. The second one might be better with the two sentences reversed.
    Also do you mean: My mother was a beautiful woman who named me Elizabeth, but everyone called me Beth.
    Or do you mean: My mother, a beautiful woman, named me Elizabeth, but everyone called me Beth.
     
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  8. fjm3eyes

    fjm3eyes Member

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    I think a flashback can be as long (cover as much time) as the author wants it to. Catch-22 comes to mind. Didn't read the book, but saw the movie The main, or central, character gets stabbed about 15 or 20 minutes into the movie and goes to the hospital. We then flashback to the movie's end. A flashback, in my opinion, should be as long or as short as the story demands.
     
  9. Thundair

    Thundair Contributor Contributor

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    Ashley
    Thanks, I like ....My mother was a beautiful woman who named me Elizabeth, but everyone called me Beth......better

    It was two sentences and I tried to make it a little less choppy as my lead sentence. Does that make sense?

    Writing in first person, didn't really feel like a flashback as she was telling the story after all the events had happened.
     
  10. Ashley Watters

    Ashley Watters Member

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    Yes. It makes sense. I fall into that trap often. The only advice I can give is what I do to fix it on edit. Watch your incomplete sentences. Make sure you have the verb which matches (belongs to) the noun.
     

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