The real world is chaotic, but fiction worlds are anything but. In the fictional world, you are the puppet master – you know what’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen. For example, if you’re writing a series of several books you can use plenty of foreshadowing for what’s to come. However, this doesn’t guarantee that you will do it right. Mistakes are easy to make, especially with foreshadowing. Below, we’ve shown several ways with which you can foreshadow important things to come in your novel or novels.
1. Right time
When it comes to foreshadowing, timing is important. Usually, the beginning of the novel (the set-up) is the right moment to use your skills to foreshadow what’s to come. This allows the readers to absorb what you’ve foreshadowed without focusing on it. On the other hand, if you foreshadow something only five pages before it actually happens, the readers will not be surprised, and the payoff (the moment when what you’ve foreshadowed actually happens) will not please the readers at all.
2. Choose wisely
The wisest thing or event to foreshadow in a novel is something important. It can be the death of a character, or the conclusion of the plot, or even the solution to a love triangle. Whatever you choose, remember that it must be important and life-changing to the protagonist and other characters. This is why subtlety is of utmost importance – if you foreshadow the death of a character in every second chapter, attentive readers will pick up on it.
3. Foreshadowing, foreboding and telegraphing
The sky is overcast on the morning of a wedding – that’s foreboding. People talking about how something dangerous might happen – that’s telegraphing. You’re not dropping subtle hints and preparing the readers for what will happen, you are telling them, almost word per word about it. Foreboding and telegraphing aren’t bad tools, but oftentimes they get confused with foreshadowing. For example, with telegraphing and foreboding, the characters and the protagonist will not show the same amount of surprise when what’s been telegraphed actually happens. But, the protagonist and other characters are surprised at the moment when what’s been foreshadowed does happen, because foreshadowing is subtle. Readers should know it and notice it, but the characters should be completely oblivious to it. For them, it’s part of the scenery, nothing more.
4. Use symbolism
Symbolism is a great foreshadowing tool – when done right of course. As an example, let’s have a woman walk down the street and veer in a circle around a pale haired and a dark haired dog fighting over a bone. This means nothing to her, but later in the story, she meets and falls in love with two very different men – one with bright blond hair, and of course, the other will be dark haired. The dog fight at the beginning can foreshadow the intensity between the three of them, and we may even see the two men having a fist fight. This way, we’ve foreshadowed the situation the woman finds herself in – between two men that are both ready to fight for her. We might go back and rewrite the dog fight and foreshadow a little more. Let’s have her hiss at the dogs and hit them with rocks to break up their fight – which will foreshadow a period where she would get angry with both of the men. Or keep the initial situation where she simply veered around the dogs and foreshadow that in the end, she will choose neither of the two men.
5. Nothing is what it seems
The previous example showed how to use foreshadowing in almost a literal way – the men’s hair matches that of the dogs, and the woman’s behavior towards the dogs reflects on how she will treat them near the end of the book. However, you can take foreshadowing to the next level by creating foreshadowing where nothing is what it seems to be. Of course, this means you will have to know the pay off, maybe even write it first before you insert the foreshadowing, but you will definitely surprise the readers while still giving them the payoff. An example – let’s say that a teenage girl is going out with friends on a Friday night. Her father warns her to be careful, and he says “I don’t want something to happen to you.” The daughter replies “I’ll be fine.” The readers will expect something to happen to the daughter. Instead, the daughter’s best friend gets into an accident, or has something happen to her. What has been foreshadowed does pay off – something bad happened to someone. But the daughter’s words were true, because nothing happened to her. However, the event will have an impact on both father and daughter as a consequence.
Georgina Roy wants to live in a world filled with magic. As an art student, she’s moonlighting as a writer and is content to fill notebooks and sketchbooks with magical creatures and amazing new worlds. When she is not at school, or scribbling away in a notebook, you can usually find her curled up, reading a good urban fantasy novel, or writing on her laptop, trying to create her own.