Tag: Flashback

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How to Survive in the Woods by Kat Rosenfield: A dark Appalachian Trail thriller about control, obsession, and survival

Mandy Webster

What happens when escaping your marriage means hiking into one of the most dangerous stretches of wilderness in America? In How to Survive in the Woods by Kat Rosenfield, released March 10, 2026, survival isn’t just about the forest—it’s about the stories we tell ourselves to stay alive.

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Set in Maine’s infamous Hundred Mile Wilderness, the novel follows Emma Sharp, a woman raised by a doomsday prepper and later shaped by the ruthless startup world. Now trapped in a suffocating marriage to Logan Grant—a charismatic, image-conscious tyrant—Emma has come to see her relationship as both prison and protection. A cage keeps you in, but it also keeps you safe. Until it doesn’t.

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Mastering Flashbacks: A Guide to Enhancing Your Fiction

Mandy Webster

Flashbacks can be a powerful tool in fiction writing, allowing authors to deepen character development, enrich plot lines, and create emotional resonance. However, using them effectively requires careful consideration.

Incorporating flashbacks in your novel is like using a time machine to show your readers what happened in the past.

Potential drawbacks of incorporating flashbacks in your novel include disrupting the pacing of the story, confusing and tiring your readers, and shifting the novel’s focus away from the story’s “present time.” If not handled delicately, flashbacks can feel like emotional manipulation. Readers may sense when an author is trying too hard to elicit a particular response, which can undermine the authenticity of the moment. Here’s how to master the art of flashbacks in your writing:

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Story Structure: In Medias Res

Mandy Webster

The concept of “in medias res” (Latin for “in the midst of things”) in novel writing dates back to ancient Greek and Roman literature. The Roman poet and philosopher Horace wrote about the technique in his Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry), which was published around 18 BCE. In this work, he advised poets to begin their stories in the middle of the action, rather than at the beginning, in order to grab the reader’s attention and create a sense of urgency. As a novel writing technique, in media res also involves beginning a story in the middle of the action, rather than at the beginning, in order to capture the reader’s attention and create a sense of immediacy and urgency.

The Iliad is an early example of a story that began in the middle of the action. Image generated using AI.

One of the earliest examples of in medias res can be found in Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad, which begins in the middle of the Trojan War, rather than at the beginning. This technique was also used by other ancient Greek and Roman writers, including Virgil in his epic poem, The Aeneid.

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