What pov did you use on flashback?

[MasFaqih]

So i want to make a flashback for certain supportive character, In that flashback, Explain what the supportive character think about the mc, So, Should I Use First person PoV?

 

[ManwX]

Hmm. Unless the entirety of the chapter was from the side characters perspective then yes.. I feel like you could do a 3rd person pov of the retelling of the events with subtle thought of the side characters interactions..

 

[MasFaqih]

Hmm. Unless the entirety of the chapter was from the side characters perspective then yes.. I feel like you could do a 3rd person pov of the retelling of the events with subtle thought of the side characters interactions..

I use 1st pov For my Mc And 3rd for the other,but i think i have to use 1st for telling Flashback using Supportive character but is it the right thing?

 

[Bloodbath_Voracity]

I use 1st pov For my Mc And 3rd for the other,but i think i have to use 1st for telling Flashback using Supportive character but is it the right thing?

Be consistent.

In my case, I just do everything in first person (I want the readers to get closer with the characters and first pov is suggested for that). I just switch from present tense to past tense like:

...I hug her. I can't help it. Mae doesn't seem to mind. She hugs me back. And then she cries on my chest.

The feelings I long buried resurfaces.

I remember the first time I saw Mae's name in the class list pasted on the wall on the first day of school back in 7th grade.

I can't explain but her name intrigued me. As someone disinterested in life, one thing piqued my curiosity.

When I finally met who bears that name, I realized there was nothing special about her. Maybe I just found her name aesthetically pleasing to hear.

I thought that's the end of it.

But as time passed by, I slowly got attracted to her. Maybe it was because she was distant, a bit cold, and I had a thing for that, but my desire to hunt her ignited in my heart.

And I began to hunt....

 

[ACFoster99]

There's never a right or wrong answer to POV stuff so just do want you think reads the best.

I'd probably lean to 1st person if you want show more about what goes on inside supportive character's head, you can express that in 3rd using body language and actions as well.

 

[Story_Marc]

There's never a right or wrong answer to POV stuff so just do want you think reads the best.

I'd probably lean to 1st person if you want show more about what goes on inside supportive character's head, you can express that in 3rd using body language and actions as well.

I mean, there are kind of right answers/contexts which are better.

Anyway, for flashbacks, you typically want to stay consistent, but it depends on how you set things up. Like, speaking from experience, for my 2nd book, I've been writing 3rd person. So I stick to it. When I do my first flashback, I anchored for it, did a line break, and then transitioned into it.

For a visual example from the excerpt...

“W-what?!” Rebecca sputtered, her hands jettisoning the deck. The cards pattered against the hardwood table as they sprayed out.

While the flurry of cards settled, Cassidy held her ground, her arms still behind her back. “I’m not suggesting we go easy on him. Still, we can offer him the chance to confess and make a deal.”

“Why should he get off so easily?! He’s made a career out of belittling others! He deserves to know what it feels like to be humiliated.”

Cassidy chomped on the inside of her cheek as her thoughts rewound to the first time she met their client, Maria Romano.

------------------
A cocktail of scents – the sting of spilled alcohol, the tang of sweat, the mustiness of old concrete – assaulted Cassidy when she arrived at the warehouse turned night club.

A haze of colorful neon lights bathed the cavernous space, casting strange, shifting shadows. The reds, blues, and purples fractured through a suspended glass ball at the center, casting a kaleidoscope of lights across the grimy brick walls and rows of mismatched furniture. It was like stepping into an otherworldly realm, its ambiance as intoxicating as the drinks being served at the makeshift bar that lined a wall on the far right.

People milled about, some huddled in groups at graffiti-laden tables, others on worn-out leather couches. A cacophony of electronic music, played by a DJ on an elevated stage, drowned out their voices.

While Cassidy wouldn’t step foot in such a locale under normal circumstances, she blended in with the clubgoers with the punk persona she had designed months ago. A black wig with blonde-tinged edges fell to her neck while gray contacts muted her green eyes. A dark band tee, leather jacket, pre-ripped pair of black jeans, and bright-white sneakers completed the disguise.

So I stuck with the same style I had going the whole time there as opposed to making it unique, treating it the same as any other scene. I just make sure to anchor the reader to know it's flashback time. And when the flashback ends, I used another divider.

Going away from my own example, here's this very thing done in The Lies of Locke Lamora...

There, without any sudden movement or jump in Locke’s perception, sat a slender man surely not yet out of his twenties. His chin and cheeks were peach-fuzzed, and his hairline was already in rapid retreat to the back of his head. His eyes were alight with amusement, and Locke immediately saw in him the sort of casual presumption of authority that most congenital bluebloods wore like a second skin.

He was dressed in an extremely well-tailored gray coat with flaring red silk cuffs; the bare skin of his left wrist bore three tattooed black lines. On his right hand was a heavy leather gauntlet, and perched atop this, staring at Locke as though he were nothing more than a field mouse with delusions of grandeur, was the fiercest hunting hawk Locke had ever seen. The bird of prey stared directly at him, its eyes pinpoints of black within gold on either side of a curved beak that looked dagger-sharp. Its brown-and-gray wings were folded back sleekly, and its talons—what was wrong with its talons? Its rear claws were huge, distended, oddly lengthened.

“My associate, the Falconer,” said the Gray King. “A Bondsmage of Karthain. My Bondsmage. The key to a great many things. And now that we’ve been introduced, let us speak of what I expect you to do for me.”

4
“THEY ARE not to be fucked with,” Chains had told him once, many years before.

“Why not?” Locke was twelve or thirteen at the time, about as cocksure as he’d ever be in life, which was saying something.

“I see you’ve been neglecting your history again. I’ll assign you more reading shortly.” Chains sighed. “The Bondsmagi of Karthain are the only sorcerers on the continent, because they permit no one else to study their art. Outsiders they find must join them or be slain.”

“And none resist? Nobody fights back or hides from them?”

“Of course they do, here and there. But what can two or five or ten sorcerers in hiding do against four hundred with a city-state at their command? What the Bondsmagi do to outsiders and renegades…They make Capa Barsavi look like a priest of Perelandro. They are utterly jealous, utterly ruthless, and utterly without competition. They have achieved their desired monopoly. No one will shelter sorcerers against the will of the Bondsmagi, no one. Not even the King of the Seven Marrows.”

It does the whole flashback in this section, after anchoring the reader. There's a lot more to the scene I'm skipping, but hopping to the end of the scene and it switching back to the present...

“They must have weaknesses,” said Locke.

“Of course they’ve got weaknesses, boy. They’re mortal men and women, same as us. They eat, they shit, they age, they die. But they’re like gods-damned hornets; mess with one and the rest show up to punch you full of holes. Thirteen help anyone who kills a Bondsmage, purposely or otherwise.”

“Why?”

“It’s the oldest rule of their guild, a rule without exceptions: kill a Bondsmage, and the whole guild drops whatever it’s doing to come after you. They seek you out by any means they need to use. They kill your friends, your family, your associates. They burn your home. They destroy everything you’ve ever built. Before they finally let you die, they make sure you know that your line has been wiped from the earth, root and branch.”

“So nobody is allowed to oppose them at all?”

“Oh, you can oppose them, all right. You can try to fight back, for what it’s worth when one of them is against you. But if you go as far as killing one, well, it’s just not worth it. Suicide would be preferable; at least then they won’t kill everyone you ever loved or befriended.”

“Wow.”

“Yes.” Chains shook his head. “Sorcery’s impressive enough, but it’s their fucking attitude that makes them such a pain. And that’s why, when you find yourself face to face with one, you bow and scrape and mind your ‘sirs’ and ‘madams.’”

5

"NICE BIRD, asshole,” said Locke.

The Bondsmage stared coldly at him, nonplussed.

“So you must be the reason nobody can find your boss. The reason none of the Full Crowns could remember what they were doing when Tall Tesso got nailed to a wall.” The falcon screeched, and Locke flinched backward; the creature’s anger was extremely expressive. It was more than the cry of an agitated animal; it was somehow personal. Locke raised his eyebrows.

“My familiar mislikes your tone of voice,” said the Falconer. “I for one have always found her judgment to be impeccable. I would mind your tongue.”

“Your boss expects me to do something for him,” said Locke, “which means I have to remain functional. Which means the manner in which I address his fucking Karthani lackeys is immaterial. Some of the garristas you killed were friends of mine. I’m looking at an arranged fucking marriage because of you! So eat hemp and shit rope, Bondsmage.”

The scene opening technique is uses as it shifts from the end of one and start of another is the contrast variant of The Dissolve. ...Here, whole video I made on that, so need to update the thumbnail on this one...

But yeah, that's why I say just stay consistent overall. There is an exception I can think of when switching to 1st person works, but that is if the character is telling the story after you setup a frame.

 

[melchi]

I use 1st pov For my Mc And 3rd for the other,but i think i have to use 1st for telling Flashback using Supportive character but is it the right thing?

Like bloodbath said, the important thing here is to be consistent.

The problem for doing a POV shift in first person is:

I = main character

People will assume that by default. If that is not glaringly obvious that the POV is different there it'll be really jarring to readers.

Having tense shifts also grates. Word will give a squiggly blue lines and say it is a grammar error.

For the ease of reading, it is best to stay consistent.

 

[MasFaqih]

I mean, there are kind of right answers/contexts which are better.

Anyway, for flashbacks, you typically want to stay consistent, but it depends on how you set things up. Like, speaking from experience, for my 2nd book, I've been writing 3rd person. So I stick to it. When I do my first flashback, I anchored for it, did a line break, and then transitioned into it.

For a visual example from the excerpt...




So I stuck with the same style I had going the whole time there as opposed to making it unique, treating it the same as any other scene. I just make sure to anchor the reader to know it's flashback time. And when the flashback ends, I used another divider.

Going away from my own example, here's this very thing done in The Lies of Locke Lamora...



It does the whole flashback in this section, after anchoring the reader. There's a lot more to the scene I'm skipping, but hopping to the end of the scene and it switching back to the present...




The scene opening technique is uses as it shifts from the end of one and start of another is the contrast variant of The Dissolve. ...Here, whole video I made on that, so need to update the thumbnail on this one...

But yeah, that's why I say just stay consistent overall. There is an exception I can think of when switching to 1st person works, but that is if the character is telling the story after you setup a frame.

Yes thats what i mean, i already setup a frame, So, its alright after all, Btw i like your video, I think They are very helpful, But can You like Making Your voice a bit clearer?, because i have to redo it to hear it right, Sorry if iam asking too much

 

[Story_Marc]

Yes thats what i mean, i already setup a frame, So, its alright after all, Btw i like your video, I think They are very helpful, But can You like Making Your voice a bit clearer?, because i have to redo it to hear it right, Sorry if iam asking too much

You're not. XD I'm doing the best I can with that. Some videos will definitely be harder on people there -- which I apologize for -- but my more recent work should be better. I would recommend turning on subtitles as well if I'm still difficult for you to understand when I'm doing videos.

 

[JustKidding]

3rd person. it makes it easier to explain things. but just use whichever you're comfortable with, as long as you clarify with the readers who the perspective is on and that its a flashback

 

[GoodPerson]

So i want to make a flashback for certain supportive character, In that flashback, Explain what the supportive character think about the mc, So, Should I Use First person PoV?

Marc has provided you with some helpful stuff.

Generally, use the POV you think best to tell a flashback.

3rd person is easier to do, and 1st person has personality but a little hard to create. But no worries, you'll find some fun bout writing in first person.