Flashbacks, Flash Forwards in Film, Literature
The Past and Future Exposed in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Dead Zone
When writing for an audience, keep in mind they want you to show them what's going on. They're not fond of being told a story. Two great ways of illustrating the past and future events in your story are through flashbacks and flash forwards, respectively.
Flashbacks
An adequate flashback definition would be to say you're taking your audience back in time...but not to just any time or place. You must take them back to a time that matters in the present and future of your characters' lives. A good flashback example can be seen in the recent film Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall follows Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) on his road to recovery after a heart-wrenching breakup. He goes to Hawaii to get away from the memory of Sarah Marshall, his estranged lover, only to discover he shares a resort with Sarah (Kristen Bell) and her new boyfriend (Russell Brand).
To help erase her from his system, Peter hangs out with Rachel Jansen (Mila Kunis), the vivacious desk clerk at his hotel. However, he continues to struggle with his old feelings for Sarah.
Flashbacks throughout tell the audience of the kind of relationship they shared. There were good times and bad times, but perhaps most memorable of all is a flashback example involving Sarah and her old memories of Peter.
At a moment in the narrative, Sarah realizes how selfish and unappreciative her current boyfriend is. She has bought him a shirt that she is excited about him wearing, but he just isn't in to it. A series of touching moments, each taking only a few seconds, shows the audience Peter never had this problem.
No matter how ridiculous it seemed, Peter was always supportive, wearing things she wanted him to wear, going places she wanted him to go, and doing things she wanted him to do.
In less than a minute, the film communicates to its audience where Sarah's feelings for Peter are, even though outwardly she shows no signs of the reality. Thus, the flashback example is relevant and triggered by something in the present.
Flash Forwards
Opposite of the flashback is the flash forward, and it works exactly as it sounds. Flash forwards break away from a moment in the present to interject relevant future information.
In Stephen King's The Dead Zone (novel, film, TV series), the protagonist acquires the gift of predicting the future after a nearly fatal car crash. When he makes physical contact, he is able to flash forward and see a person's future.
In the novel, the protagonist feels cursed with the gift. Everyone wants to know what their future holds, and for the most part, he honors their requests. Then, he shakes hands with an opportunistic politician and flash-forwards to a future of genocidal proportions.
The question that drives him on: If you knew Hitler was going to do what he did to the Jews, would you kill him before he had the chance? Thus, the story becomes about one man's moral conflict with what he has known to be right against what he must do to save others.
The flash forward of a nuclear event becomes a plot point on which the rest of the character's path must travel.
Final Thoughts
Time travel may not be possible in the real world, but it's a welcome device in creative writing. Don't think you have to leave your readers out of the past or future of a character's life before the natural plot progression takes them there. You can take your audience wherever you want them to go.
But be warned.
Whether it's a flashback or a flash forward, the information that comes to light must be triggered in the present by something relevant...and the information either literary device provides must be essential to the audience's understanding of the story.
Notes
- For a quality lesson plan on writing flashbacks and writing flash forwards, visit Read, Write, Think.
- For a book review of Stephen King's The Dead Zone, check out Illiterarty.
Signet Paperback, Stephen King's The Dead Zone
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Mila Kunis in Forgetting Sarah Marshall
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