I'm sorry QI?

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I'm sorry QI? And I only remember him as the nude guy in Sherlock Holms.

 

Unnecessary flashbacks. What do I mean by that?

You read along. It's an AU or whatever. You learn that some character died a while ago, the protag feels guilty and or sad and you're given just enough scarce details to imagine their death.

Next time dead character is mentioned, Enter The Flashback. Sometimes it's short and skimming it is entirely manageable. Other times, it's a multi-thousand word monster, all in italics (as if italics is the requirement for flashbacks wtf) that in the end takes you to what you already knew. X character died in Y way, protag has sadfeels about it.

I don't care. No one else does either. Well, I guess the author cares, but that's about it.

I'm not against flashbacks in principle, just the ones that don't add anything apart from numbers to the word count. If you insist on taking me through a blast from the past, make damn well sure it's a blast instead of an anemic breeze.

Write a goddamn prequel oneshot or something and post it separately if it's longer.

 

I'm against flashbacks in principle. Whenever I see one in a story I groan and contemplate quitting - they're never good.

 

I disagree with the blanket statement of suckery, but I am prone to groaning and assuming it's gonna suck 99/100 times when I see one.

 

Surely there's been at least a handful of good fanfics with a flashback or two?

 

I honestly can't think of one. Unless you count A Long Journey Home, where like 75% of the fic could be considered an extended flashback? But, meh, no. Not a true flashback.

 

Flashbacks are are just lazy storytelling imo.

To each their own.

 

newageofpower, there is at least one. Renegade Cause.

HAHA, suckers, I stand vindicated.

edit: well, technically the flashbacks are pensieve memories, but c'mon, they're flashbacks. I ain't talkin' 'bout chicken'n'gravy biatch.

 

Off the top of my head? Backward with Purpose, The Unforgiving Minute, Fool Me Twice, The One He Feared, After the End. Hero's Path even has labelled flashback scenes IIRC, though I don't consider it good. Not sure what you mean by true flashbacks, but all of them have have sudden changes in time.

Flasbacks are perfectly acceptable in a story. You just need to know when and how to use them.

 

I can tolerate Harriet, but I'd prefer writers to be more original when thinking of a common girls name to give Fem!Harry.

Made worse when it goes:

~~Flashback begins~~

...

~~Flashback ends~~

 

Flashbacks are done excellently in On the Way to Greatness. One sentence snippets that are relevant to what Harry is thinking, in a completely believable manner that happens in real life, while also giving the reader much needed exposition without it feeling forced.

Scenes like the one mentioned in the post above are just bad though.

 

Flashback begins

Flashback ends.

Flashback begins.

Flashback ends.

Flashback begins.

Flashback ends.

Flashback begins.

Flashback ends.

Flashback begins.

Flashback ends.

Flashback begins.

Flashback ends.

 

When they turn the Death Eaters into the good guys.

 

Let's not pretend this thread is anything more than a massive circlejerk.

 

Ugh, this brings us to another peeve of mine: Italics.

Specifically, when authors fuck up their italics so that half the chapter is in them, then they don't double check to make sure their formatting is okay when they post their work... and odds are they won't go back and fix it even if they later become aware of it.

That shit is really obnoxious to read and can even lead to confusion about where the scene (or flashback, if it is one) actually ends.

 

"Talking"

'Thinking'

"DEMONIC SPEAKING"

Foreign language

uʍop ǝpᴉsdn ƃuᴉƃuɐɥ ʇslᴉɥʍ ƃuᴉʞlɐʇ ǝuoǝɯos

Are all my readers idiots, or just me?

 

You forgot to add:

$Parseltongue$

 

£British people talking£

 

Z̫̞̪̥̘̝a̦̩̭̭͎͍̞l̹̮͍͇̜̫go̞̥͎͞ ̼͕̦̻͈s̸͖̩̼p͕̻͉̫e̸̻͓͉̩ͅe҉̫͉c̣h͈͙͈?̹

 

~~~~THERE IS ONLY ZUUL~~~~