When it is okay to use a flashback

As most budding screenwriters would know, using a flashback to explain a character’s back story is downright criminal. To simplify the thought process… firstly, yes! to explain backstory is damn near a criminal offense in screenwriting. But, here is to the use of the parentheses. The parentheses literally means to use the parent idea, this is how the flashback become so commonplace in the first place; is a case of writers learning from other writers. The treacle down process has not proven kindly to the unassuming writer.

The parentheses can be thought of in one if not function on two or more of these three lights; the characters psyche; memory; and his/her dreams. Redefinition does serve to open things up, certainly in this scenario.

This is where your film vocabulary comes into play. Oftentimes, to move the story forward some of these scenes can play into duality or even work as separate functions to aid in the forward momentum of the characters’s motivation. Playing on the character’s psyche is the most commonly used of the three but consider that the psyche, a memory or his/her dreams can distinguish a character, aid in understanding his/her motive and at the same time reveal part of the story or afford the audience a rough sense of where it(the story) is going. Working on two or three of these at a time works best.

For example, with plot and character, one can suddenly assume many things about how the movie is materializing and where our protagonist is going. So before falling into the ages-old Hollywood trap when viewing if not writing your own screenplay, consider first that the word parentheses is rooted of the word parent. Where did the character’s motive come from & where is he/she going with so much already revealed? The root of the problem is the big question… so, ask it.