Markdown flashback template: present, past, present

This flashback page holds an invented person's present action, a single earlier event, and an explicit return in one .md file.

One-person flashback scope

Keep the flashback on one continuing strand, following the same person throughout. Begin in the present, write the earlier event, then resume the present action in words.

Let sentences carry both time shifts; use no heading marks or list markers for either shift. Keep every prose paragraph flush left. Leave out tales within tales and additional strands. Finish without a concealed explanation or a final revelation.

For the .md extension, consult the Markdown file introduction.

Flashback prose anatomy

# [Invented page title]

[Invented: Describe the person's present action.]

[Invented: State when the earlier event happened and describe that person's action then.]

[Invented: State the return to the present and continue that person's action.]

Replace the bracketed prose with invented actions for that one person. Keep time words inside those paragraphs rather than adding labels above them. For paragraph gaps, consult spacing with blank lines.

Invented latch sample

Every nonblank line of this latch sample is labeled invented; Jane Doe exists only within this invented passage.

# Invented: The brass latch

Invented: Jane Doe turns a brass latch beside a newly painted door.

Invented: Three mornings earlier, Jane Doe had rubbed wax along that latch until it turned freely.

Invented: Back beside the newly painted door, Jane Doe lets go of the latch and steps through.

In this invented passage, "Three mornings earlier" begins the move backward. Here, "Back beside the newly painted door" resumes Jane Doe's present action. The invented final sentence follows the latch turning with a step through the doorway.

Naming this flashback page

For this invented latch passage, brass-latch-flashback.md is a possible name. Join its words with hyphens and retain the .md ending, as described in naming a Markdown file.

Where Sashmark fits

The planned app is a desktop program that opens and edits Markdown files. Its intended users are people who keep .md files written during AI agent sessions. For now the app stays in development, with nothing of it put out so far. A .md page carrying one invented flashback, such as the sample above, is among the files planned for Sashmark.