Question about The Past

If we have a story where The Past is one of the Signposts for the MC, does the exploration of the past have to be about something that happened before the story began, or can it be about something in the previous scene that just took place 5 minutes ago?

For some reason I’ve always thought of it as something from the character’s backstory, but I’ve started wondering whether exploring the past can be about anything that has already happened, even what just happened a minute ago. I mean, it’s already in the past, right?

The dictionary has a former times synonym. That does seem to indicate a chunk of time in the past that we can/might re-evaluate. Five minutes ago could be its dynamic opposite of present, couldn’t it? Just thoughts off the top of my head, here.

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If you want a specific example, I’m pretty sure the storyform for Star Trek has The Past as the fourth signpost, and it has to do with something that happened in the first act.

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Well, this opens up a whole new realm of possibility for me. I’ve struggled with certain characters who (in separate stories) needed to explore the past in some way, but were in stories that I felt had little to do with the past. As I mentioned in my original post, I’ve always thought of “The Past” as something that happens before the movie (or book, or play) starts.

I feel so free now… Why didn’t I recognize this before now? lol…

Thank you @Prish, and @MWollaeger for your helpful comments.

Rod

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You might also find it helpful to think of things that are less concrete: how a person was raised, for instance, vs. a specific event with the character’s parents.

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Another different example of The Past: a lot of crime or detective-type shows have scenes where they review security camera footage. In fact, these type of stories usually have ample opportunity to explore The Past, since the crime itself is usually in the past.

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Near past, long past, historical past…it all works.

“The last time we were here…”

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