That's Not a Flashback, I'm Just Chronologically Challenged
The lovely Lady Glamis has once again inspired today's blog post. Appropriately, this entire post is a flashback to something I wrote in the OWW discussion group a while ago. There we were discussing narrative tension. One device which classically saps narrative tension out of a chapter is to begin with the happy end and then flash back. I think this is why so many people advise against flashbacks in a story. Lord Theoddues Kelvin wiped his forehead. Zounds, that was close! He almost hadn't made it safely back to London. When Dr. Devil had left him stranded in the lava pit, surrounded by hungry cyborg dinosaurs, he'd had to think quickly. First, he'd grabbed a nearby rock and thrown it at the control panel on top of the T-Rex's head. But the rock wasn't strong enough to break the plastic casing around the control mechanism. He leaped and rolled out of the way just as the tremendous jaws snapped at the spot where he had just stood... No matter how exiting the sc...