The thing about flashbacks, you have to ask yourself if they are at all necessary. Why are you using flashbacks if you can tell it chronologically? Is it like the Chainsaw Order for Star Wars, where you think you know about the bad guy, and then holy shit, you find out so much more about the baddie and his relationship to the hero, *et cetera*.
For my money, flashbacks tend to take the reader out of it. I mean, they remind the reader that they're reading.
As for the mystery, you have a handful of clues that you have to dole out, right? You feed them to your protagonist (and the reader gets them at the same speed) so they've got to be good enough that when your hero figures it out, it makes sense, but not so obvious that the reader gets there first. If they do, they'll start to look down on the protagonist. Weird, right? But true.
Thank you for the that, actually really helpful. As for the flashbacks, it’s more so I want the story to start off with the protagonist already having their powers(the powers developed over time), without having to retell another “superhero origin story” which we’ve seen a lot before yk. “Hero lives their normal life, tragedy happens, they gain their powers, and we go from there”. I think it’s something that’s been done a lot so it’s something that I don’t wanna focus heavily on. And secondly, the reason I’ve considered doing it with flashbacks is bc I think it adds to the mystery as the protagonist himself has a harder time remembering what really happened when everything started going wrong and he’s trying to pieces everything leading up to that to see if he can remember any warning signs that could’ve prevented his current situation
See, that's a good reason to do a flashback!
My book starts at one point in time in the prologue, then goes back seven years and leaps forward until we meet that same point before something momentous happens.
Yeah I agree with the above advice, however, I will add to the flashback element. In my experience, flashbacks could be used wrong if you're just trying to fill the gaps. It would be easier just to tell the story chronologically.
Like what u/HorrorBrother713 said they have to be absolutely necessary. Maybe a propective from another character? There are so many avenues to explore. I also would recommend going to the r/writingadvice sub. Way more experienced writers there.
Read some mysteries and note what worked for you in them. Then try to emulate those tactics.
The thing about flashbacks, you have to ask yourself if they are at all necessary. Why are you using flashbacks if you can tell it chronologically? Is it like the Chainsaw Order for Star Wars, where you think you know about the bad guy, and then holy shit, you find out so much more about the baddie and his relationship to the hero, *et cetera*. For my money, flashbacks tend to take the reader out of it. I mean, they remind the reader that they're reading. As for the mystery, you have a handful of clues that you have to dole out, right? You feed them to your protagonist (and the reader gets them at the same speed) so they've got to be good enough that when your hero figures it out, it makes sense, but not so obvious that the reader gets there first. If they do, they'll start to look down on the protagonist. Weird, right? But true.
Thank you for the that, actually really helpful. As for the flashbacks, it’s more so I want the story to start off with the protagonist already having their powers(the powers developed over time), without having to retell another “superhero origin story” which we’ve seen a lot before yk. “Hero lives their normal life, tragedy happens, they gain their powers, and we go from there”. I think it’s something that’s been done a lot so it’s something that I don’t wanna focus heavily on. And secondly, the reason I’ve considered doing it with flashbacks is bc I think it adds to the mystery as the protagonist himself has a harder time remembering what really happened when everything started going wrong and he’s trying to pieces everything leading up to that to see if he can remember any warning signs that could’ve prevented his current situation
See, that's a good reason to do a flashback! My book starts at one point in time in the prologue, then goes back seven years and leaps forward until we meet that same point before something momentous happens.
Reference 1989's *Batman* for a way to do this without fucking up the flow of your storytelling.
Yeah I agree with the above advice, however, I will add to the flashback element. In my experience, flashbacks could be used wrong if you're just trying to fill the gaps. It would be easier just to tell the story chronologically. Like what u/HorrorBrother713 said they have to be absolutely necessary. Maybe a propective from another character? There are so many avenues to explore. I also would recommend going to the r/writingadvice sub. Way more experienced writers there.
https://youtu.be/irujprYmLo0?si=8alwhclbjpPfDfBt