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So uh, manager got axed but she decided to deadman’s switch and nuke alot of other...enjoyers of group extracurricular activities by sending evidence to HQ directly…. And I knew none of this and walked straight into the aftermath of the hidenburg. There’s burning bridges… And then there’s nuking the thing. So the fallout has yet to be determined but on the other hand kinda have to respect going out on your own terms via nuclear fission.

One thing I appreciate here on AFF is that we don’t have to consider sexuality a gift of the 18th birthday, that it’s part of the human condition from the day we’re born. Stuff I write is usually underdogs, their development, which tends to include youth, teenagers, and college-aged characters because its these early years that tend to set them up – sure, can happen later too, but way more likely with early indoctrination. Jeff? He’s eight, in the middle of taking a bath, when the father comes to execute a custody order in the middle of a divorce, thus Jeff’s leaving his family home in his birthday suit, and gets relocated to a nudist environment as that’s a good hiding spot from the ex … that’s got underage all over it. Nah, I’d totally understand it if you had minors doing those acts… happens today with teenagers, how many “wait” until they’re 18 to get frisky if given the chance? Some do, but not most, and I try to write with a fair bit of realism to it. And even if the teens aren’t actually getting frisky, they’re dreaming/joking about it. Even in star trek, most red shirts had a name, maybe added to the captain’s log “Death of Lt Smith”. So, if the character’s around for most of an episode, a name’s likely the right thing to give them. If you’re having difficulty with names, try a random name generator, that’ll suggest names fast. (I tend to use http://random-name-generator.info/random/)

Well to give you an example, I have a story featured in Scooby Gang Time about a single cheerleader involved with multiple men. However, when I wrote it I specifically had minor characters who had names in the canon of Buffy. However, the characters maybe appeared in one or two episodes. Some of them were exes of the female cheerleader character. Whereas using the naval officer example, I don’t ever name any of the naval officers. I don’t think I even mentioned the name of the main female character. The only way you know who the character is because I labelled the chapter with the name of the character. The naval situation isn’t canon to the series or universe as far as I’m aware. So none of the characters are canon and are entirely created for the story. In the story I’m writing now in the Riverdale space, I do mention the main female character’s name. She’s definitely not a minor, and I make a specific attempt to ensure that they’re not a minor. I think almost all the characters are from later in the series when they had graduated high school and were adults. There’s maybe one character where their age is not clear, something that I did with Scooby Gang Time story.

Yep, both agree here. A sidecar/backstory also does way better justice to the character than “flashback short”. Take Jeff, briefly mentioned in a flashback, is now a fully fleshed character, and the reader will be rooting for him when he competes in the Olympics (swimming), in what’s likely going to be a multi-installment type of back story. One thing I fight in my potter story rewrite… I did a lot of retcon before, so it’d be like Hermione going “Yesterday Snape talked to me...” On this rewrite, I’m changing it to showing that conversation when it happens. Thus, what had been revealed later to be SeamusFinnigan/LadyAuror relation, is now being shown (added a new character on this rewrite, and his POV is able to witness SeamusFinnigan/LadyAuror banging on the sofa in the Gryffindor Common Room).

Hi, Desiderius Price, and all. Yes, there truly is a point where you have to write a separate story to tell the backstory of a character in the “other” story. Or two different stories actually intersect for a short space. Those are the “sidecar” equivalents to the prequel and the sequel. Before Disney destroyed Star Wars, they had an entire cottage industry writing those stories to the three, and later the six core canon stories. The last three movies were basically stewed pig feces, though there was the occasional gem to float up, but I digress… Cheers!

My disastrous mistake with flashbacks… In my first original fic I posted here, because it was a huge group of people, I started inserting chapters of flashbacks, one after another, covering how the different characters got there. Reviewers were getting confused “isn’t he dead?” Once I realized I had basically had multiple stories in it, I started to peel them off as SEPARATE stories, and it’s way, way better. Of course, haven’t finished those backstories, still working on them, and plan to get back to the main story… eventually. For instance, Jefferey is backstory that delves into the subversive underground group trying to counter the strong religious push/indoctrination of the main society. Alaska Trekkers shows how two join up to the main story. Dale’s Game is intended for one of those too (though it derailed, so it’s eventual rewrite will fix that). Once I start clearing out the backstory & rewrites, I do intend to get back to the main story In the meanwhile, this potter fanfic isn’t going to write itself. Overall, I minimize flashbacks, as it’s usually a symptom of planning issues. However, they can have a place.

For a character thinking back to an earlier moment in time, those would tend to be short. If the character is relating an incident that happened to them before the “main” time of the story itself, or relating an incident through their own perspective that did not happen in the “view” of the main story perspective to one or more of the “main” characters, they can be far longer. When doing this “longer” flashback, you can also “come up for air” in the “present moment” of the story to get reactions from the characters being told or reading the story. And in some cases, you might need to. Cheers!

Felt like digging… Definitely sage advice there! I tend to keep the flashbacks short, focus on the one thing needed, and usually to show the character dwelling on something. Because a “flashback” to add in something earlier into the story’s time-frame tends to hint that I failed to simply put it in at the appropriate time. If I “flashback” to right before the story started...why didn’t I open up with that instead? (Obviously with fanfic, sometimes you do have to retcon something into canon, so your hands are a bit more tied.)

Something interesting has percolated up from the past. Hmm… The most important thing in my personal opinion when writing a flashback is this: Never use the actual word “flashback,” unless your protagonist is a psychedelic drug user who is reminiscing or remembering when they were having either more or less “flashbacks” to suffer from. Otherwise, the length or shortness of a flashback isn’t entirely a fixed quantity, at least in my opinion. But, like anything else in creative writing for an audience, it does has its place, and its limits.