A jump ahead in time that shows the reader a glimpse of what is coming before returning to the present.
A flash forward leaps ahead of the current narrative timeline to show a future event, then snaps back to the present story. It is the opposite of a flashback. Flash forwards can create dramatic irony, build dread, or make the reader desperate to understand how the characters get from point A to point B. They are less common than flashbacks but can be incredibly powerful when used with intention.
A well-placed flash forward gives your reader a destination to anticipate, which can make the journey there feel electric. If the reader knows something terrible is coming, every seemingly innocent scene becomes charged with meaning. It is a bold structural choice that signals confidence in your storytelling.
Billy Pilgrim becomes 'unstuck in time,' experiencing flash forwards and flashbacks without control. Vonnegut uses this to show how trauma shatters linear experience.
The novel's famous opening sentence is itself a flash forward: 'Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.'
Egan jumps freely between past and future, sometimes revealing a character's fate chapters before showing the events that led there, creating a bittersweet tension throughout.
A flash forward should raise questions, not answer them. Show just enough to intrigue without giving away the payoff. Leave the most important details out of the glimpse.
Every flash forward should earn its place by creating dramatic irony, building dread, or reframing what the reader sees in the present. If it does not change how the reader experiences the current story, cut it.
After showing an exciting or dramatic future, the return to the 'normal' present can feel dull. Make sure the present-day scenes have their own sources of tension and interest.
Write a 500-word opening that begins with a flash forward: your character standing in a place they never expected to be, in a situation that raises immediate questions. Then write 'Three months earlier' and begin the real story with the character in their ordinary life. Make sure the contrast between the flash forward and the present creates genuine curiosity.