A ponderance:

When reading a novel you've picked up at the bookstore/grocery
store/wherever, do you find yourself reading along, enjoying the book, 

when

suddenly 

  ...A store employee taps you on the shoulder and asks you to buy it? 

you come across THIS:

  Oh. Heh, heh. 

<snip multiple examples of Flashback signs>

Has anyone here ever run across this in a book of fictional prose? I 

would

assume not.

  True. 
  Of course, in recent memory I can think of only one book that did 
something like that: a Star Wars novel called 'Madalorian Armor,' which 
had a lot of promise, but barely treads water (IMHO, and I ain't pickin' 
up the rest of the series, either). At the beginning of each chapter 
there might be something like 'THEN...' or 'NOW,' which really bugged me 
to no end. 

So my question is...

WHY do some fanfic authors feel compelled to use such breakers in their
fanfics, when it completely wrecks the flow of the story?

  Who knows? 

People, there IS NO REASON to smash people upside the head with a huge 

neon

sign that says "HEY! Hey you! Stupid reader person! Flashback here!
Flashback, you hear me? FLASHBACK!"

  Perhaps the sign is not there especially for the reader, but the 
author. Of course, it could also be just a lazy way of introducing a 
flashback (as in the aformentioned SW novel...). 

Inferno: "As you command, My Queen!"
Megatron: "I wish he'd stop calling me that...'

Inferno: "Say the word, my queen, and I shall destroy him!" 
Megatron: "Not now. And for the last time, STOP CALLING ME THAT!!!"
Inferno: "Yes, my... <urk!> ...Megatron?" 

  (couldn't resist :)

"YES." --Kosh (Babylon 5), Megatron (Beast Wars), Slithe (Thundercats)
"Decepticons FOREVER!!" --Ravage, former Decepticon
"Do *I* look like a pack mule to you?!" --Quickstrike
"If you go to Z'ha'dum, you will die." -- Kosh, Babylon 5

--Razorclaw X

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