Hello everyone! I'm having trouble with a section I'm writing, and any help would be greatly appreciated... The basic setup is that I've recently introduced a new character, and he has to convey a story to another group of characters. The story he is telling is very important plot wise; it provides the rest of the characters with a sense of direction and fills them in with some important details regarding the overall story. At the same time, it's very important that the events of the story took place in the past and he is catching everyone else up. I would much rather tell the story almost like a flashback; I feel like it would be much more powerful than having the character simply tell everyone else. Does anyone have any ideas on how to set up a flashback, or ways to have the character tell the story in a way that isn't simply him telling a story? Thanks in advance!
How long is the story? Two paragraphs? or More? I had to do something similar in my story. What I did was to leave a hint at an incident in the previous few chapters to create interest and let m,y readers know that something was off. Then when I relaid the story, I also broke it with questions from the other characters to break the monotony of having one character tell it. If your story is important to your plot, could you not do the same? Perhaps let one character sense that something is not quite right, but not know why? That way when you new person shows up there is a sense of gratification for that feeling. Let it all fall into place better. You could also do the flashback but the set up to it is important. I hope this helps. Good luck.
Depending on how long it is and what else you have set up, you could set up the flashbackas as a short prologue (If you don't have one already). It could serve as an "A-ha" moment for the reader when they put the pieces together and realize that the prologue is what the character was talking about. The flashback would have to serve as the opening hook, however, so you would have to make it interesting in and of itself before opening the story proper.
Try making him the PoV and have him speak for himself and end it with a "and so I told my new friends" or something. Like assuming it's substantial, you could just have him go through a series of scenes until the present time. If you prefer 3rd person, you could do so similarly with the main cast but with a chapter dedicated to catch-up with this new guy.
