Back to Flashbacks

I know they’re considered weak, flashbacks, but I don’t want to show all of Heather’s previous work life, just the important bits. To show why she’s quit her job and gone inside and also partly why she’s hired a stalker in the first place.

Plus, if she’s just sitting around her flat, not doing much of anything, I reckon that’s what she’d do. Analyze her previous life, her old life, her bad life. Maybe she’s reminded of something during her work-free life, something whilst she’s out, or maybe a smell reminds her, or a phrase, something. That would then bring her back to her old life, remind her about something key or important.

I wonder if style somehow can allow me to avoid the flashbacks being flashbacks? What I mean is instead of having the flashback happen right there, in the present tense story line, what if, almost as a secondary story line, there’s her old life. Divide it up by chapter or section instead? So that the story becomes non-linear in a way, in parts.

Would I then need to include some of Robin’s old life in a similar fashion? What would happen if I gave him a future story line, a third story line?

Something to ponder for the weekend…