Writing Flashback

Another type of story opening is the FLASHBACK.

A flashback is when a story refers to an earlier event, but does not tell the reader straight away what happened. They have to read on to find out!

By using flashbacks, writers allow their readers to gain insight into a character’s motivations and provide a background to a current predicament/problem.

When you write in the first person, you will need to use these personal pronouns:

I

me

you

we

them

us

our

Oxford International English Page 24

Any ideas on how we could begin this story with a flashback?

Look at the example below:

As my legs strained against the rugged snow covered train, I knew that my training had not been in vain… It was a year ago and I was barely 11 months old. Bright Dawn’s father had my pack and I out in a blizzard, tethered to what felt like a tonne of bricks secured onto a sled. His kind words of encouragement contrasted by the eager swish of his whip kept us going. In my head however, I wondered when we would ever need such determination and brute force… Now I knew.

Discuss the relevance of the flashback to the current events.