How to Write a Flashback in a Screenplay

Do you know how to write a flashback in a screenplay? When you’re writing a script, there are plenty of unique and creative things that you can write, in order to have the best story possible. One technique that many screenwriters use, in order to enhance their stories, is incorporating a flashback into the narrative.

When you incorporate a flashback into the narrative, you’re going to create richer characters, because the viewers are going to have an understanding of what happened in the past, to one of the characters in your film.

It’s always better to have complex characters when you’re writing a screenplay, and if you’re looking to create complexity, there’s nothing better than a flashback scene.

Today, we’re going to discuss some techniques that will help you know how to write a flashback in a screenplay. By the end, you’ll be able to write an eloquent scene that will enhance your writing.

Let’s get into it.

What Is A Flashback?

If you’re unfamiliar with what a flashback is, let’s go over some of the basic details, so that we’re all on the same page. To put things in a simple way, a flashback is a point in the film or play, where the narrative goes back in time. In other words, if a film is set in the contemporary day, a flashback might include a character envisioning the 1970s, when they were a child.

A flashback can either envision a time long ago or a time that is the more recent past. Usually, flashbacks have a lot of significance to the character. So, it wouldn’t make sense to create a flashback to a point in the character’s life that isn’t interesting, unless you’re doing that for a certain reason. Most commonly, flashbacks are moments in the character’s life that are traumatic, which helps the audience to understand why a character is behaving a certain way in the present day.

When it comes down to it, a flashback is incorporated into the script so that the viewers of the film or play know more about the character’s behaviors and what’s driving their behaviors. You understand more about a person if you know more about their lives, so writing in a flashback is just a way to help your viewers know more about your character’s life.

What Are The Two Categories of Flashbacks?

When you’re writing a flashback scene, it’s good to know the basic information about the technical art of the genre. To get specific, there are two main categories of flashback scenes.

The first one is the occasional flashback scene. This is a technique that will require the writing to deviate from the plot of the movie either frequently or infrequently, to show things from the past. That is, an occasional flashback will create a narrative that is broken up.

The film might be set in the 1990s, but instead of showing a plot that is linear and moving through time, the film might flashback to the 1980s every ten minutes or so. Occasional flashbacks can require the writer to go back and forth through the past and the present by alternating the time period of each scene.

Or, an occasional flashback can be less frequent. There might only be one scene in the film that is a flashback. Maybe during a fight scene, the character is taken back to a time in their childhood where they had a fight with their sibling.

After the past fight is shown in the movie, the film would return back to the present day, where the character is having a fight with someone else. To sum things up, occasional flashbacks can be frequent or infrequent, but they require characters to go back in time.

The second kind of flashback that writers can implement into their plot, is the structural flashback. With a structural flashback, you’re going to be in the past for most of the movie.

Commonly, these movies will start in a certain time period, and then after a segue, the film will begin to recount a time in the past. The difference between an occasional flashback and a structural flashback, is that a structural flashback will continue for the bulk of the film. That is, in order for a flashback to be structural, most of the movie needs to take place in the past.

Sometimes with structural flashbacks, characters are in the past, but the viewer doesn’t know it until the end of the movie. Whether you find out at the end of the movie or the beginning of the movie, in order for a film to have structural flashbacks in it, the flashbacks need to be substantial.

There are plenty of incredibly famous films that follow the structure of the structural flashback. For example, Memento, Saving Private Ryan, Titanic, and (500) Days of Summer are all films that use the structured flashback technique.

Despite this, it’s more common for writers to incorporate an occasional flashback, and it’s often better for new writers to incorporate the occasional flashback, because it’s easier to do that technique well.

What are Some Myths about Using Flashbacks

When you’re a writer who is interested in knowing how to write a flashback in a screenplay, you might be anxious to incorporate them, because there are many myths surrounding flashbacks that travel around the field. The primary myth of using flashbacks, is the idea that one should never use flashbacks.

This is simply incorrect.

It is very possible to make grave mistakes when you’re screenwriting, but when these mistakes happen, it isn’t because a writer used a certain technique, it’s because the writer is still developing their skill. In order to be successful at any craft, you’ve got to practice, so in order to be successful at screenwriting and writing flashbacks, you’ve got to practice.

What Are Some Positive Things About Flashbacks?

Knowing how to write a flashback in a screenplay is a great technique, because they will help you to enhance your character without relying on dialogue in the present. This will ensure that you’re keeping your film fresh and unique, without resulting to predictable things, like dialogue.

Also, flashbacks are a great way to get close to the character’s inner thoughts and dialogue. There’s nothing that viewers like more, than feeling connected to characters, and when you can get viewers close to the character’s mind, you’re going to get viewers excited.

Flashbacks make the audience curious. Let’s say that you have a flashback incorporated into your film, but you refuse to have dialogue in it. Simply by using imagery, you’re going to get your viewers interested in the context of the flashback, which will help them be interested in watching—because they’ll probably be anticipating more details to be revealed in the future.

How To Write A Flashback

When it comes down to it, the most important thing that you can do when you’re writing a flashback, is to ensure that you’re writing a script with emotion. When you have a flashback, you need to get your viewers to understand the importance of the situation that you’re flashing back to. If the character doesn’t seem to have any emotion in this scene, then it’s going to be an obsolete flashback.

Never underestimate the importance of writing with emotion, when you’re writing a flashback.

Another thing that you need to remember, when you’re writing a flashback, is that it’s a good idea for your characters to have a revelation during or after the flashback, if you’re going to include it.

A good rule of thumb is that flashbacks should be moments that change the course of your characters’ lives. If they aren’t moments that are important, there isn’t a point in including the flashback.

Also, flashbacks are a good way to create a mood of nostalgia in your movie. If your character is walking past their childhood bedroom during the time of their adult life where their parents are moving out of the home, you might flashback to the character’s childhood.

During this flashback, you might show what it was like for the character to play in the room when they were a child. You might even show their parents tucking them into bed in the childhood bedroom.

Whether the parents read the character a bedtime story, or whether the child has unpleasant memories of being sent to their room after getting in trouble, when you flashback to the childhood bedroom in the past, you’re creating a moment of nostalgia. Especially because the character will never see the bedroom again, after their parents move.

Final Thoughts

When you’re screenwriting, don’t be scared of incorporating a flashback scene. As long as you’re practicing your craft, you’re going to be able to incorporate one into your movie script in a way that is successful.

The benefits of knowing how to write a flashback in a screenplay far outweigh the cons, because if you are successful in writing a flashback scene, you’re going to be able to create an elevated mood of nostalgia and complex characters.

So, now that you’ve learned about the ins-and-outs of writing a flashback scene, good luck writing your own!

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