My writing group in Austin thinks flashbacks are lazy, but one changed my story

Three years ago, I wrote a story where a character finds an old photo. Last month, I added a flashback to show the day it was taken. My group said it was a cheap trick and told me to 'show, don't tell' in the present. I kept it anyway, grounding it with specific details like the 1998 Ford truck in the driveway and the smell of cut grass. That one scene made the character's choice in the present make complete sense. Has anyone else had a writing rule they were told to break that actually worked?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_viola5d ago

Totally get that! My old workshop hated prologues, but I wrote one that just felt right. It set up this quiet mood that the first chapter couldn't. Sometimes you just have to trust the story you're telling.

faith_king5d ago

What mood were you trying to set that the first chapter missed?

taylorc405d ago

Exactly, prologues can build that slow tension a regular chapter opener just can't match. It's like letting the reader settle into the world before anything big happens.