Editorial style question

[subjunctive_conditional]

Hi. New to Lit, this genre, and this medium, but long time author supported by a superb editor. Looking for suggestions for formatting "flashback" sections of a story. In print I would do this with indentation or, possibly, italics. In the specific story I've written, the flashback (which is written in the present tense) is many pages long, so indentation would be disconcerting. Some readers dislike extended use of italics. What is the appropriate/recommended convention when writing for screen display? Thank you, in advance!

 

[AlexBailey]

Part of the reason I wrote my novel in first person present tense was so flashbacks could be easier handle through narration and analysis.

What tense and person are you writing in?

 

[subjunctive_conditional]

Part of the story is in first person (recent) past tense; another part is a flashback (a vivid reliving of a past event), written in first person present tense because the character is reliving the event.

 

[Athalia]

The device I've used is to begin writing the story in the first person, in a setting appropriate to where that person is. Then, after a row of asterisks, I told the "flashback incident" the third person, in a setting that was distinctly different (in my case, Renaissance Florence). After another row of asterisks, I resumed the first-person story in the original setting. None of my readers seemed to be confused and disoriented.

And I agree that italics would be a very bad idea.

I once read a novel consisting of two story threads, using a different type face for each thread. It would have worked well except that the type faces were too similar. I talked to the author afterwards and found that she was very unhappy with the publisher's decision on which type faces to use, but she had no say in the matter. And, of course, Literotica doesn't give you that option at all.

 

[subjunctive_conditional]

I like the row of asterisks! Thank you.

 

[KeithD]

Here you could just sectionalize the flashback--sections are frequently separated with * * * or * * * *, flush left here since paragraphs aren't indented.

If having done that, it seems unclear it's a flashback, you could put something in front of it to indicate is its. 'She sank to the base of the tree, and having seen him before came back to her."

 

[AlinaX]

I used some experimental section breaks in Vale, although I'm uncertain whether anyone noticed.

 

[subjunctive_conditional]

I like your use of section breaks. May try that approach. Thank you.

 

[ronde]

All of the above are good ways to introduce something that happened in the past. I favor the narrator explaining that what follows was in the past.

Just don't do what I've seen in too many stories and insert "Flashback" or " XXX years before"

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I just introduce it in the text.

Blah blah. Of course, this wasn't the first time I'd ...
Back then, I'd been X and done Y... This had happened and that had happened.

And now, I had another chance to...