Using Flashback

Using flashback in your manuscript is a great way to provide background narration about your characters, events, or dialogues that occurred prior to your story.

Often these are events that are critical to your backstory.

Many great fiction authors like Dean R. Koontz, Stephen King, Anne Rice, Robert Ludlum, J.K. Rowling, have used this technique.

I have provided an example of flashback below.

The man lit his pipe and inhaled the deep aroma of the flavoured tobacco. Finally, after years of searching he had found the right ingredients. Only twice in his life had he smelt that intoxicating odour; once right now, and once when he had been just a boy. The same night he had run away from his home, never to return. The night his father had disappeared.

The flash back in time:

“Aidan,” his mother called softly to him. The boy looked up from staring at the stranger and to his mother. She waved him over urgently. He was sure he saw a glint of fear in her eyes.

“Come, come,” she hissed. The boy turned back to look at the stranger, one last time. Whatever his mother and father were afraid of, the stranger had brought it. The man looked no different than numerous other workers on the dock, yet he brought a strange smell from the pipe that drifted out into their tiny apartment.

The boy turned and followed his mother out of the only home he had ever known; a home he would never see again.

Back to the present scene.

The man shook his head, he needed to clear his thoughts. Soon he would be face to face with the man who took his father. He took another drag of the pipe, savouring the flavour, swirling it over his tongue. Soon his rage would have an outlet, soon.

Flashbacks and flashforwards are a great way to use foreshadowing and build suspense or drama in your story. Good luck.