Foreshadowing

[Ldy_Sea]

When I write I find my characters doing little things for no apparent reason, but later in the story this little action becomes a plot point or way to move the story forward. I have no idea how this happens but it happens every time I write.

For example I am in a sex RP about an injured athlete who is temporarily bed ridden. I am his nurse. In one of the early posts I turned the temperature down in his home to the upper 50's, ten several back and forms later I leave him in bed naked with no covering sheet, while I make him dinner. Suddenly the temperature becomes an important point, and I enhance his coldness by commenting on the color of his testes, and serving a meal composed of items served chilled.

Does anyone else have similar experiences where there muse guides them and they find themselves adding minor details that become important later in the story? If not how do you foreshadowing?

 

[sr71plt]

When I write I find my characters doing little things for no apparent reason, but later in the story this little action becomes a plot point or way to move the story forward. I have no idea how this happens but it happens every time I write.

Yep, it happens to me regularly as well.

 

[Hypoxia]

I'm pretty clumsy at it; it's more like telegraphing. No subconscious foreshadowing that I've noticed. But then, my pieces are pretty crude, story-wise. Maybe I need some sensitivity training for my consciousness.

 

[lovecraft68]

Yes, I think subconsciously some writers know the whole story before they do in their waking mind.

I wrote a 50 chapter opus and things from the first ten chapters all of a sudden found perfect fits in chapters in the 30's just meant to be type stuff and that was spread over a year and a half.

That's what many (me included) refer to as the muse. But I think it is subconscious.

 

[StrangeLife]

Does anyone else have similar experiences where there muse guides them and they find themselves adding minor details that become important later in the story? If not how do you foreshadowing?

Yes and no. At least not quite the same way.

I tend to focus a lot on character, so I will typically begin with a general idea about where I want the plot to go and then proceed to create a cast of characters that will take me there. But sometimes the "characters take over" and write the story differently.

No, I'm not getting psychotic or anything.

It's simply a realization while writing that this character wouldn't do things the way I've planned. A good example might be a man busting his wife cheating and thus becomes depressed... until I realize that I wrote his character as a proud self-made business-owner from a blue collar background who is used to getting things done. Such a man wouldn't react that way. So I would change the story to have hubby drag his wife's lover out in the street by his hair and beat him to a pulp.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

OK, time for a tutorial.

There's much error and confusion about mental states.

UNCONSCIOUS: It generates feelings like fatigue, anger, fear, lust, pain, joy. Its a primitive level of awareness.

SUBCONSCIOUS: I call it the archives or library of experiences and learning. Its there, outta mind, but easily and quickly accessed. You can call it memory if you prefer but its more than memory, its also bulk input from your senses.

Those states are available to 2 executive states I call ARCHAIC and ADULT. Over time they've been called many names but there are simply 2 of them, one gets you from birth to puberty, and the other takes over after puberty tho the archaic state is never a passive part of the team, its your Muse part.

When I create or problem solve I activate the archaic state which collects info from the unconscious and subconscious, and roughly forms it to a shape the adult state can refine and finish.

 

[CalLorenson]

Writing with the Unconscious

Recent research has shown that a lot mental processing goes on in our heads outside of the awareness of the conscious "me" part of our mind where we live from moment to moment. I've had the same type of experience of suddenly connecting those loose thoughts within a tightly crafted story.

I think it is a combination of several things. I like the idea that lovecraft68 expressed where we actually know the characters and the plot much better than we may realize. I know I spend quite a bit of time thinking about my characters and scenarios before I write them.

The other thing that happens to me is that once I've written something, I remember the little extraneous pieces I used for color. Later in the narrative, I'll be writing something relevant, and suddenly there is the connection.

Whatever it is, use it and enjoy it!

 

[MSTarot]

I do this a lot.

I'm not sure if I'm seeing to the end of the story or adapting the story, as I write, to what I've added.

The one that is similar to this, that I like, is when I start to research different things to put a story together and they just all drop right into place.

A story of mine "Lord of Devil's Night" did just that.

At least 15 different random things and they all tied together perfectly.

 

[StrangeLife]

Recent research has shown that a lot mental processing goes on in our heads outside of the awareness of the conscious "me" part of our mind...

As in "we're thinking with our dicks." Yeah, I've heard that...

 

[SandraMustard]

Before I knew what foreshadowing was, I was using it unconsciously, so most of us did/will discover we have without being taught. It must be a human communication trait. Some readers don't know about foreshadowing but might recognize something they read was predicted earlier in the story and enjoy the effect.

Now I purposely put in foreshadowing and still find unconscious instances occurring. In my novel, I used dream sequences to weave past experiences and future predictions in an anglo-theme. Then there was this unplanned instance:

My fiance was serving a military tour of duty in Korea. After 8 months without seeing an American woman, I met him at the airport in a Hot Pants outfit (who remembers them?), showing a lot of skin. Well, he developed an erection. When I talked to my BFF that evening, I mentioned his boner reaction and she said, "I wish I had seen that." 24 hours later, she saw his erect cock. Her parents were vacationing in New York so we used her house to renew our amorous activities. She came into our bedroom to discuss getting a pizza but Woody didn't cover up throughout the 5 minute discussion.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I'm more of the mind that we remember little details later and take advantage of them and then sit back and marvel at our natural epic foreshadowing.

I know I've done that - drafted a seemingly inconsequential detail from early point of the story into a plot element later in the story.

What's more fun is when I gleefully add a detail during a re-write that I know is truly foreshadowing.

 

[Acktion]

Before I knew what foreshadowing was, I was using it unconsciously, so most of us did/will discover we have without being taught. It must be a human communication trait. Some readers don't know about foreshadowing but might recognize something they read was predicted earlier in the story and enjoy the effect.

Now I purposely put in foreshadowing and still find unconscious instances occurring. In my novel, I used dream sequences to weave past experiences and future predictions in an anglo-theme. Then there was this unplanned instance:

My fiance was serving a military tour of duty in Korea. After 8 months without seeing an American woman, I met him at the airport in a Hot Pants outfit (who remembers them?), showing a lot of skin. Well, he developed an erection. When I talked to my BFF that evening, I mentioned his boner reaction and she said, "I wish I had seen that." 24 hours later, she saw his erect cock. Her parents were vacationing in New York so we used her house to renew our amorous activities. She came into our bedroom to discuss getting a pizza but Woody didn't cover up throughout the 5 minute discussion.

I've actually kind of wondered if the studied literary devices touted in literature classes aren't really just labels tagged onto what somebody did a while back in something they read... and if the person actually thought about it in those terms or just "Hey! Let me do this so the audience gets the punchline."

Somehow, I figure what you describe is probably closer to what the studied greats actually did.

 

[sr71plt]

I've actually kind of wondered if the studied literary devices touted in literature classes aren't really just labels tagged onto what somebody did a while back

I'm sure that's true.

 

[robertreams]

Not only do my characters foreshadow, i was writing a character the other day and he got up off my typewriter and threw himself in Lake Michigan in the fridgid waters of October. Now I hafta figure out what the hell his motivation was!

 

[Mockingjay]

Not only do my characters foreshadow, i was writing a character the other day and he got up off my typewriter and threw himself in Lake Michigan in the fridgid waters of October. Now I hafta figure out what the hell his motivation was!

Characters are, at times, mysterious and puzzling! I like studying them as if they are school subjects or as a scientist observing my fictional creatures.

 

[Swilly]

Not only do my characters foreshadow, i was writing a character the other day and he got up off my typewriter and threw himself in Lake Michigan in the fridgid waters of October. Now I hafta figure out what the hell his motivation was!

Typewriter? Shouldn't this be in the dating yourself thread?

 

[robertreams]

Something wrong with being more experienced?