Young Writers Society

I'm writing a satire story and have already posted first two chapters. Most of my readers advised me to add a flashback sequence in my third chapter to give a depth to my MC. I am writing the third chapter currently, but there is no room for a flashback. The story is quite fast-paced and adding a flashback may create unnecessary deviation.

The story has an important flashback sequel which I have planned to write after writing 8 chapters. Can anyone suggest me how to create layered characters without necessarily going in flashback.

You should be able to develop your characters in a third dimension as it is to write a successful story. However if you need to reveal things about the past there are plenty of ways you can do this. You could simply integrate it into your characters thoughts or situation where you mention something that happened in the past and how it relates to the current event. Alternately you could have your character talk about it through dialogue with another character.
However, if its your readers telling you do to a flashback, then are you sure that's the best option? If you were contemplating a flashback and they are saying do it, then that's one thing, but is this information really needed in the story? Besides, you would be to develop your characters third dimension at the beginning. If you reader wanted to get attached to your character then 8 chapters in is a little late. Its not to late to add more things bout your character, but its too late to say "Guess what, this character is actually Three-dimensional and here's why." Taada!

@Blackwood

The story I'm writing is a satire on law. It's about a man who becomes a thief to fund his orphanage. I had never thought that my readers would ask me to add a flashback about my MC and his attachment towards the orphange in the second chapter itself. Currently I am planning to give some info through dialogues and later add a flashback. Thanks for the response!

Hmm, there are a lot of ways to incorporate background information without having to write a flashback.

Dialogue is one of them, but is limits what you can and cannot say and it also depends on who you are talking to. The idea I have is actually something fishy. You said flashbacks, I assume a huge chunk of flashback.

But who said you couldn't have tiny little flashbacks, like little reminiscent of places. You can almost scarp this off with retrieval cues, maybe seeing a building, hearing something can trigger these little flashbacks. Just even two or three sentences to provide some background information here and there, and you can give the readers a sense of the background.

^^ Hoped I helped.

Remembrances, I suppose, would work; depends the sort of characterization you're trying to do. It's easy to drop small paragraphs throughout the story, with the protagonist remembering certain moments, times when, etc. I generally much prefer this method, if adequate to the needs of the plot, to full-on flashbacks, which can easily stall the main narrative if you're not careful. If you find a flashback is a necessity, be sure to include just as much conflict as you would if it were happening "present day."

I hate flashbacks >.< They drive me crazy. You just get into the swing of things, the story is running full throttle ahead and then WHOOPS let's just take a detour down memory lane while all the good stuff is happening elsewhere.

Some characters are amazing even when you know nothing about them, and some characters you never really learn to love even after spending three hundred pages with them. Some people you can know your whole life and find them boring, while others catch you like a fly in a web when you've only just met them.

Quirks
Everybody has them, and they make us interesting. Some people wash their hands before and after eating. Some won't step on cracks in the pavement. Some insist on eating their sandwiches jelly-side down.

Humechanics
Those basic things that makes them relatable, things we all feel and will help your reader empathise with your character. Like hating Mondays, eating junk when we should cook some real food, and spending ages searching down the side of the couch for the TV remote when it's sitting on top of the TV. Things we smile at because it makes the characters more human.

Relationships
Are a huge part of every day life. We interact with different people in different ways, and you can learn a lot about a person based on how they treat their lovers, enemies, family. General friendly banter at the workplace and quiet, stiff discussions over dinner reveal parts of us that often we aren't aware of ourselves, and by seeing how characters interact with each other you're not only building relationships, but character depth and atmosphere too.

When reviewers say "I want X!" you have to look at it differently than simply "Oh, this means I must insert X". You have to pick apart the advice they're really giving, because while people know what they want, they don't always know how to get there.

In this case, they've already told you what they want: more depth to the character. This doesn't have to be necessarily backstory, or their past.

I haven't read the story, but from your line "I hadn't expected readers to ask me about his attachment"— that's probably because they can't tell why he has it. You don't need to do a flashback to that. You simply need to explain it better when it shows up.

If you haven't done that history and really built it into the character (ie- what parts of his personality led him to behave the way he did), then that flatness will show in your writing. You might not be showing their history, but you need to know that history.

Write that flashback, write out his life history, and put in a bunch of stuff that will never show up in the story. Challenge yourself to put in all that work and never have it show up in your story.

Why? Because your characters will be so much richer in the final product. You'll have pieces of information about his personality that influence him in modern day, and it'll all be vaguely tied together enough that he's a believable character.