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IWW
Practice-W Exercise Archives
Exercise: Take Me Back
These exercises were written
by IWW members
and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its
members.
You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that
you found
them at the Internet Writers Workshop
(http://www.internetwritingworkshop.org/).
Prepared
by: Ruth Douillette
Posted on: 5 November 2006
Reposted on: 8 June 2008
Reposted on: 15 November 2009
Reposted on: 5 December 2010
Reposted on: 30 September 2012
Reposted on: 31 May 2015
Reposted on: 26 March 2017
Revised and reposted on: 27 January 2019
Reposted on: 9 May 2021
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Exercise: In less than 400 words, create a scene in which a sensual
stimulation suddenly triggers a flashback, a potent memory, which
influences a character's behavior. Begin by briefly grounding your
protagonist in the present, provide a sensory trigger that brings forth a
memory, and then show us the event that affected your character. Try to
make a smooth transition between past and present.
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Flashbacks give a reader needed information, or backstory, to understand a
character's motivations and real-time conflicts.
Through flashbacks, readers gain information they need to understand the
character's motives, or to understand a current conflict. Dreaming, finding
a diary or an old letter, or meeting an old friend can catapult a character
into such a recollection. Another approach is to have the character see,
smell, hear, touch, or taste something that leads to a significant memory.
A well written flashback moves the reader from the present to the past
without seeming contrived or awkward. For this exercise use a sensory
trigger to spark the flashback. Perhaps your character smells banana bread
and flashes on a childhood scene with her grandmother. Or your character
sees a candle melted to a stub and remembers dark days when the electric
bill wasn't paid.
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Critique: How smooth was the transition the between past and present? Did
you find the flashback to a believable catalyst for the character's
behavior? Did the scene give you helpful insight into the main character's
mindset?
Web site created by
Rhéal Nadeau and
the administrators of the Internet Writing Workshop.
Modified by Gayle Surrette.
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