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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/46846
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

In my story my MC has suffered a severe injury and has no recollection of who he was before it occurred. He knows what happened and where he was when it occurred as he was told by the people who found him and nursed him back to health.

I want a large portion of the plot (and world building) to be done through his flashbacks. While not immediately relevant to the story, it will become the final act. Any ideas on how to write longer flashbacks?

**For Example:**

- When he goes somewhere he visited before and has a memory of the place, but unlike Deja Vu he doesn't feel it.
- He has dreams of battles, or conversations with (in the future) key players in the socio-economic make up of the day.

I was thinking if it were almost a chapter-esque length, write the chapter in _italics_, and if was longer make it clear to the reader by segmenting the read with a ------------- separating the present from his mind, and typing in different text or italics. I want it to be fairly uniform between the longer memories and the shorter.

Is there a common practice?

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**Edit:**

While this [question](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/46352/any-tips-on-writing-extended-recollection-in-a-novel), which was pointed out to me by Cyn (I missed it apparently during my initial research); is quite similar, it deals with a lot of dialogue which can guide that OP's MC through the memory/flashback and through conversation it can be apparent to readers, which time period the text is referring to.

Whereas my issue and desire to implement the flashbacks is more situational (e.g. MC approaches a fortress or a valley, and remembers a snippet of his life-before, often without context to him). For the portions of his life/world that is remembered through dialogue that question is hugely beneficial, but not so much for the situational flashes, or dreams.

Original score: 1