Flashback and Backstory — What’s the Difference?

Flashback and Backstory — What’s the Difference?

by Diane O'Connell
Flashback and Backstory — What’s the Difference?

Flashback and backstory are two essential techniques in the writer’s toolbox. They are also two of the trickiest storytelling devices to do effectively. Used correctly, flashback and backstory help the writer craft characters with rich, fleshed-out histories. The most compelling novels deliver a clear sense of where the characters have been — and how their past experiences color and drive events in the present.

But what’s the difference between a flashback and backstory — and how do you know when to use each?

Backstory is the larger past underpinning each character’s journey. Sometimes, the entire backstory an author has created for a character isn’t even explained to readers. Rather, it reveals itself during pivotal moments.

Flashbacks, on the other hand, are interruptions in your narrative — whether a short paragraph or a few pages — that act as direct conduits to a character’s past. There are two types of flashbacks: One that transports readers to an event outside the timeline of the novel, and one that revisits a scene that already occurred in the story.

Read on for more important points to keep in mind when using flashback and backstory.

Source: https://www.writetosellyourbook.com/fiction-advice/flashback-and-backstory-whats-the-difference/

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