The writer with the idea that characters must be three-dimensional creates a backstory for his characters. The writer then becomes so preoccupied with excessive flashbacks that he loses touch with the present, which is a more important time for the characters. If the writer cannot eliminate excessive material from the past, he can eliminate excessive flashbacks by developing the past as another ongoing story within the same story. The past will then run parallel to the present and conclude in the middle of the story.

This is not a method to cut corners. The writer who executes this technique will save time and solve the problem of excessive flashbacks by giving his reader enough ideas about what happened in the past. The reader, absorbed in the pace and plot, will not even notice this. The characters’ pasts will meet and conclude in the middle of the story. The past and present will converge, but the present leads to the continuation of the story until the end.

Example (present) A father and his daughter are both lawyers. They are handling the same case from a diametrically opposed perspective. Gene is a brilliant prosecuting attorney trying to convict a suspected murderer. His daughter, Amanda, an equally brilliant criminal lawyer, believes the defendant is innocent. The father and daughter have a long-standing professional rivalry, and this rivalry extends to their personal lives.

(Past story) Gene blames Amanda for her mother’s death. She died saving Amanda from a speeding car. Since his wife’s death, Gene had lost the joy of tending to his paternal duties. While he remained a good provider for Amanda, he tried to avoid spending time with her, often leaving her in the care of teenage babysitters. This made Amanda grow up with resentment. They rarely keep in touch when she went to college. To spite her father, she decides to become a lawyer.

Halfway through the story, father and daughter have equally sworn to humiliate the other by winning the case, which is considered to be the most sensational criminal trial of the decade. The writer must establish a crisis that will connect the past, and at this point, the present must take over the story. Before the trial begins, Gene is shot as he traverses the steps toward the courthouse. Amanda is devastated. Because the reader knows the past, they are inclined to believe that Amanda has something to do with her father’s death.

The past is a complete story in itself. In avoiding excessive flashbacks, the writer must give equal importance to the past and present events. The past story will stop when it catches up with the present. The reader has enough idea about what happened then, so the writer must lead him into the present and what could possibly happen in the future. Reader involvement is sustained by suspecting Amanda of having her father killed. In the end, it is both relieving and surprising when the reader discovers that the murder suspect used his connections to take down Gene.