I'm sure, if you read my blog regularly, that you're wondering what happened to me this past month. January was a vicious whirlwind of sickness and revising. As I've been busy Lysoling my house (is that a verb? it should be....), I've also managed to make it halfway through my 2nd round of revisions.
But, as I'm rearranging and updating, I've debated putting a flashback right into the center of my story. I've seen flashbacks as prologues and I've seen them used throughout. I think the amount of success of flashback varies based on story and skill of the storyteller--a topic for another post--but I don't know how I feel about having just one. My gut tells me that it's probably an unnecessary info dump.
My reasoning for even considering it? My characters had a falling out when they were young, a fight. Things were said and left unsaid and then they had a ten year separation. I've debated whether I need to give that argument or not.
What do you think, readers? Do you think giving a past argument, if it's important to the characters' shared history, is necessary? Or do you get annoyed when authors go back in the past when you just want to read the present and future? Thoughts?
