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Weekly Fiction Workshop
Forward March Fiction
Resisting the temptation of “the flashback”
The “forward march,” as explained by Nancy Lamb in her book, The Art and Craft of Storytelling: A Comprehensive Guide to Classic Writing Techniques, illustrates the linear telling of a story.
“No stopping, no doubling back. The plot moves in strict chronological order,” (p. 53).
This is a complicated strategy for new writers who grew up on flashbacks in their favorite books and TV shows. There is nothing wrong with a flashback, but it can quickly become an exposition dumping ground for unnecessary filler.
Forward March fiction avoids the “Exposition Dump”
Exposition dumps are long, seemingly unending paragraphs or pages of information that the reader “wasn’t there for” or happened before the story began. This is usually told by the narrator or omniscient third party rather than by the characters.
Sometimes exposition is beautifully given through dialogue and character interaction. More often than not, though, exposition is a wall of text with names, dates, places, or events that fill up our time and our brains.
