: Re: Flash-forward as Prologue and then Flashbacks too complicated? Chronologically, the story begins with the protagonist as a child and description of her world, which is important to the plot. Since

@Annie587

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This is very common. Many stories start with an event that the writer thinks will grab the readers attention, (some particularly dramatic event,) and then go back to tell us the whole story; or, the writer begins with the outcome, and then goes back to tell us how events led up to that.

There's certainly nothing wrong with doing this, but I would give two caveats:

Make sure it is clear to the reader what is a flashback and what is in the present. Any time writers talk about flashbacks I'm reminded of a book I read years ago that began with the heroes winning a great battle. Then the writer flashed back to the events leading up to this battle. But nothing in the book indicated that this was a flashback, so I thought we were now talking about what happened after the battle. And there were so many things that didn't make sense. Why are they struggling with this problem in chapter 5 when I thought it had already been solved in chapter 1? Etc. It wasn't until I got to a section where some events happened that were clearly tied to a character in chapter 1 saying, "I remember a day when we ..." that I finally realized, Ohhhh, this is all a flashback!"
Be sure there's a good reason for the flashback. I've seen many stories that start with a character saying, "Let me think, how did it all begin?", and then they go to the flashback. And it's like, why? What did that scene add to the story? Sometimes the scene includes some indication of the final outcome, which may or may not be a good storytelling device. Often it tells us nothing and I'm baffled why the writer included the scene.

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