3 Hours Earlier: They Surrendered Their Creativity

I don’t know about you, but nothing turns me off quicker than a plot that starts off, seemingly, at a critical moment, and then recedes to an earlier time with a “3 Hours Earlier” tag on the screen. I’ve run into a few of these in the last couple of weeks. Flashbacks, I guess you’d call them. Overused, is how I see them.

C’mon writers, do some research. If one show on any network has used this ploy during the last 9 seasons, then you should opt to refrain from torturing your faithful audience who, most likely, continue to watch your show despite a myriad of other shortcomings. Give us a break.

A little research revealed that the flashback, a.k.a. analepsis, was employed by writers as long ago as the 8th Century B.C. in the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata.

I also found that more recently, in the 1927 book The Bridge of San Luis Rey, the progenitor of the modern disaster epic in literature and film-making, Thornton Wilder takes the victims of a single disaster and intertwines their stories with events leading up to the disaster by means of flashbacks.

So, enough already. If, as a writer, you find yourself typing anything that even narrowly resembles the dreaded “3 Hours Earlier,” immediately hit control + A, then delete. Thus, you will prove yourself to be a true humanitarian.