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Historical re-enactors share your problem. Here are some of the things we do: Read history books, sure, but sometimes it's the museum catalogs that show everything from art to architecture to everyday kitchenware that really help. History books will tend to give you a good view of events, but they're not always so good for daily-life stuff. Then ask ...

There are many ways to research a location and a time: Books, the internet, even satellite photos and Google Street View. (Not really relevant for this project, but I've fixed some pretty basic errors with those.) However, when the place in question is interesting, you need to make sure that your research is actually relevant to the novel. When you're ...

Following the usual advice to “Write what you know”, you would set the project aside and write about things you know now. But in the meanwhile, you could • obtain and study books, maps, or films about the area, • strike up a correspondence with people in the area, • advertise locally to meet people from the area, • make plans to visit the area. If you meet ...

I don't see a problem with what you have done. Flashbacks (like any literary device) can be implemented in many different ways. Some authors prefer to simply tell the flashbacks as you mentioned, but I assure you that that does not necessarily establish an implicit norm. I have read many texts and short stories that have dialogues in flashbacks. In your ...

You have two things going on: a flashback from the main narrative, and a dream. If the dream is taking place in the past, that may be a literal flashing-back, but it's not actually a flashback. A flashback is reliable (in the sense of "reliable narrator"), realistic, and a memory of someone. It's a detour from the forward narrative. A dream, on the other ...

The sentences starting with "then" etc can usually be amended by leaving them out, and indicating the time using more expressive statements: They were dark and deep, like small black holes. Sophia felt as if they were looking directly into her soul. The very core of her existence. She was terrified, but for some reason, she found something familiar in ...

If a flashback is a paragraph or two, you can (sometimes) get by with telling. But if a flashback is longer than that, it has to engage the reader in the same way that current-time events do. And that usually means you have to show. And that means that, once you transition into the flashback, it reads just like any other scene. Note that the term flashback ...

A flashback is usually a memory. Whatever is in that memory should be in the flashback. (Even if it is not the character's memory, I still treat it as a memory). If that memory contains a lot of dialogue, don't you think you should include it so the reader gets the full effect of what you're trying to convey? I hope this helps!

There are different schools of thought on how masterful and complete a writer's knowledge/research should be, and I think they often correlate to how seriously you want your work to be taken. Are you trying to simply write a more "commercial," non-lasting book that will provide a bit of fun and entertainment, or to write a book that is more lasting and ...