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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40475
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40475
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

 **Sometimes What Works in a Movie Works in a Book**

If you have a chatty narrator, having her/him say "let's go back to the beginning" or "but I'm getting ahead of myself" or anything that indicates the time shift is totally fine.

You can also put it into the chapter headers.   
"Many years ago..."   
"October, 1985."

Or you can indicate it by referencing a character's age. For example, if the prologue (your fast forward opener) shows the character surrounded by grandchildren, maybe your first chapter (the first one in the predominant time) references the character graduating from college. Or if the prologue shows a character getting married, maybe the first chapter shows the character in kindergarten.

Note that you don't have to separate out future and present into different chapters, but you will have to make them distinct in some way, even if it's through the narrator.

You do need some sort of external reference like my examples, because changing the tense of the chapter will not convey enough information.

In a movie you can use the setting to convey a large time shift backwards and do a fade from a character's face to a younger version of the same actor or a different one (in which case the first line after the switch is usually includes the character's name). In a book you will need to be more explicit (as movies often are as well).

What's important is that the reader understands what you're doing. How you accomplish that is up to you.

Original score: 2