Foreshadowing?

[KeithD]

To what extent do you use foreshadowing, earlier hints of twists to come, and when do you apply it?

I use it and it occurs in two ways for me. When twists have shown up as I write, I often paint in some foreshadowing for them when I do reviews. Just did that in a Halloween contest piece I'm working on now, adding references early on in a couple of dimensions that are used later and thus making the story a bit richer. The other way that it happens, which I enjoy, is when writing a twist I didn't know was coming until I was writing it, I realize that my muse had dropped some foreshadowing in already that I didn't understand as such when I was writing it.

 

[SimonDoom]

I do. I used a lot of foreshadowing in my erotic horror story Darkling Tower. The story starts with the protagonist renting an apartment in a building that superficially seems idyllic, but right from the beginning there are signs that things are off and potentially dangerous.

I think foreshadowing is helpful in any "taboo" story to soften up the reader and make it more plausible to them that your character is someday going to cross the taboo line. I used foreshadowing in the first paragraph of my incest story Late Night on the Loveseat with Mom.

It's easier, I think, to handle foreshadowing in third person POV than first person because as a third person narrator you can intrude and drop little hints in a way that's tougher if you're telling the story in first person. It can be done in first person, but it's more challenging.

 

[onehitwanda]

I use it if I'm lucky enough to be writing something that lends itself to its use.

 

[alohadave]

I'm working on a story with hints of foreshadowing. Not something I've really done before, so it feels weird dropping hints. Since know where it's leading, it feels super obvious to me writing it.

 

[StillStunned]

My favourite way of foreshadowing is through choice of words: adjectives with connotations that put the reader in the mindset for what's to come, without explicitly saying it. If you sprinkle enough of them around, far enough ahead of the foreshadowed event, it gives the reader a feeling of recognition, even if they didn't actively see it coming.

 

[NotWise]

There's a line somewhere between foreshadowing and simply unfolding a story slowly. I'm not sure where to put that line.

I intentionally foreshadowed the end of my one-and-only April Fools story because it seemed to me that readers often don't like being "fooled," and foreshadowing let them say "Oh of course."

There's also a line somewhere between foreshadowing and "Chekhov's Gun," and I don't know where that line goes either.

 

[StillStunned]

My story "Ben's Big Mistake" uses foreshadowing a lot. I wrote a WIWAW to explain some of it. As I noted in my post above, it's mostly by using words to evoke connotations in the reader's mind, even if they don't realise it.

 

[Yarglenurp]

There's a line somewhere between foreshadowing and simply unfolding a story slowly. I'm not sure where to put that line.

I intentionally foreshadowed the end of my one-and-only April Fools story because it seemed to me that readers often don't like being "fooled," and foreshadowing let them say "Oh of course."

There's also a line somewhere between foreshadowing and "Chekhov's Gun," and I don't know where that line goes either.

Tropes don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Chekhov’s gun is arguably a form of foreshadowing… unless it never gets used. Then it gets turned into a fish (red herring).

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Well, considering that I write long chaptered stories, I use them often. I tend to plan far ahead and so I plant some bits and pieces early. Some things coalesce like 100k or even 200k words later. I think that's how very long stories and novels should be written. Dropping twists and developments out of the blue is ad hoc writing in my opinion, and it isn't as satisfying for the reader as when there were hints and pointers along the way. I want the reader to be able to say "Ah... I should have seen that one coming," rather than "Well, no one could have seen that one coming."
It's easy and lazy to drop twists without giving any hints or reasons in advance.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I do quite a bit of foreshadowing, but I sometimes wonder if much of it is so subtle that few readers will pick up on it.

Some of it is planned. I don't generally write a story from start to finish. I usually have at least a sketchy ending written before I get much past the opening scenes, and will jump around within the story as I'm writing. That makes it easy to weave in foreshadowing and running motifs.

But I also look for particular details when I'm doing read throughs, and will find foreshadowing opportunities to add.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Well, considering that I write long chaptered stories, I use them often. I tend to plan far ahead and so I plant some bits and pieces early. Some things coalesce like 100k or even 200k words later. I think that's how very long stories and novels should be written. Dropping twists and developments out of the blue is ad hoc writing in my opinion, and it isn't as satisfying for the reader as when there were hints and pointers along the way. I want the reader to be able to say "Ah... I should have seen that one coming," rather than "Well, no one could have seen that one coming."
It's easy and lazy to drop twists without giving any hints or reasons in advance.

Agreed. I don't want to drop spoilers, but if anyone wants to read a perfect example of foreshadowing, I'd recommend John Irving's The World According To Garp.

There is an extremely important scene involving a car accident that, as you read it, you realize that a number of small details that seemed insignificant when they were mentioned earlier in the narrative, all come together to create one catastrophic event that changes the lives of all the characters.

 

[KeithD]

I use foreshadowing to take the edge off of nonconsent. Before the protagonist gets into a "didn't explicitly say yes" situation, I'll have him/her mental state shown of curiosity and being ready to go there.

 

[Bazzle]

To what extent do you use foreshadowing, earlier hints of twists to come, and when do you apply it?

I use it and it occurs in two ways for me. When twists have shown up as I write, I often paint in some foreshadowing for them when I do reviews. Just did that in a Halloween contest piece I'm working on now, adding references early on in a couple of dimensions that are used later and thus making the story a bit richer. The other way that it happens, which I enjoy, is when writing a twist I didn't know was coming until I was writing it, I realize that my muse had dropped some foreshadowing in already that I didn't understand as such when I was writing it.

I think it depends on if you have already planned your twist?

I have often put them in during the editing process. For my help rather than the readers. It's a benchmark in the story of what everyone knows.

Isn't it a sign that the best authors put red herrings of foreshadows to steer the reader the wrong way before twisting everything back on themselves and the actual foreshadows become clear.

On TV mystery programmes I've got good at spotting the foreshadows. The wife hates it when I say - that tea cup will be important only 20 minutes later the detective is getting it analysed.

B

 

[KeithD]

I think it depends on if you have already planned your twist?

I have often put them in during the editing process. For my help rather than the readers. It's a benchmark in the story of what everyone knows.

Isn't it a sign that the best authors put red herrings of foreshadows to steer the reader the wrong way before twisting everything back on themselves and the actual foreshadows become clear.

On TV mystery programmes I've got good at spotting the foreshadows. The wife hates it when I say - that tea cup will be important only 20 minutes later the detective is getting it analysed.

B

I rarely know the twists that are going to be in the story before I begin writing it--unless it's the twist that was the first thought of there being a story to write. So, with me, the foreshadowing doesn't depend on anything I've already planned. Perhaps it's my method of writing. I plow through to a finished draft. In review, which always has added elements and wordage, the story can reshape and change or add twists. That's often when I paint in foreshadowing (although, as noted, sometimes in review I see that my muse has anticipated twists I didn't and has already put foreshadowing in).

I write mysteries in the mainstream (and some in erotica). My most common red herring is that the character pointed to as the culprit turns out to be the culprit. That usually unbalances mystery readers. They are trained to think of that as a red herring. In that case there's something else significant going on in the story other than who did one or more of the crimes. I do want my readers to engage in the story enough to try to figure out the villain/the mystery. And they'll come back for more if, although they've had to work at it, they did figure it out.

TV mysteries are pretty easy to read. Time constraints limit the elements you can put in so that any foreshadowing/clues put in tend to broadcast the twist/conclusion. It's also pretty reliable to look at the added characters in a TV mystery sequence. Who is the added actor who gets the most roles/probably is the highest paid of the added actors? That's your villain.

 

[StillStunned]

On TV mystery programmes I've got good at spotting the foreshadows. The wife hates it when I say - that tea cup will be important only 20 minutes later the detective is getting it analysed.

I can't remember whether it was Castle or CSI:NY, but the redhead and I figured out that whoever was being interviewes at the 20 minute mark was pretty much always the murderer.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

The wife hates it when I say - that tea cup will be important only 20 minutes later the detective is getting it analysed.

You know you are spending too much time on Lit when the first thought that comes to your mind is "Which part of the cup is that?"

 

[Lifestyle66]

Any foreshadowing I use is just something I consider as part of the story build-up. I provide a reason early in the story for the ultimate ending.

In my current pending story ("Aftermath, or 'I Can't Go for That'"), it's a loving couple, and the husband is dedicated to his traumatized wife. I start by showing them as a loving, monogamous couple (it's going into Loving Wives), with no interest at all in porn or anything other than missionary sex. But as their sex life changes, I show his aversion to her new oral skills as the precursor for the ultimate problem. He could eventually see her as a stranger, no longer the woman he married.

 

[THBGato]

Lots of people foreshadow in their titles I find. I'd go gay for you by Bi_Cathy and There were four in the bed by @joy_of_cooking immediately spring to mind. My own The Third Date: Clueless of Cotham I guess also foreshadows what is going to happen with the title (yep, a loose adaptation of "Emma" featuring three dates).

 

[MelissaBaby]

Lots of people foreshadow in their titles I find. I'd go gay for you by Bi_Cathy and There were four in the bed by @joy_of_cooking immediately spring to mind. My own The Third Date: Clueless of Cotham I guess also foreshadows what is going to happen with the title (yep, a loose adaptation of "Emma" featuring three dates).

I was going to title a couple of my stories I Am Going To Make You Love These Characters And Then I Will Kill Them, but then I thought, nah

 

[Kumquatqueen]

The spouse and I love shouting out when TV mysteries show clues.

"It's a clue! It's a blatant clue!"
"He's been arrested. But we're only 35 minutes in, so it must be someone else..."
"A particular shape of wound in the head? And the husband is a golfer? It's a golf club, innit?"
"Bonus point if it's a four-iron."

In my stories, I tend to draft the narrative and then add detail, which will include foreshadowing as part of fleshing out the emotions at each stage. Currently working on my April Fool story that was half-done this year. Done the end, so need to make sure the story is consistent to get there. Avoiding spoilers, two people have repeated conversations where one thinks they've agreed one thing, the other thinks they've agreed something different, and the difference only comes to light much later.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I can't remember whether it was Castle or CSI:NY, but the redhead and I figured out that whoever was being interviewes at the 20 minute mark was pretty much always the murderer.

Castle certainly had something like that. IIRC it would also usually be somebody who, at that 20-minute mark, wasn't in the frame as a suspect.

 

[Britva415]

Lots of people foreshadow in their titles

I have one story in which the tags reveal what isn't revealed in the story until the end.

There are some foreshadowing elements, but I wouldn't exactly call it a twist.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I don't think I do a lot of foreshadowing, or not intentionally so.

I do have one horror piece which begins with "don't go into the haunted crypt, you'll get eaten" and ends with the guy who went into the haunted crypt getting eaten, but that's more like fiveshadowing.

I suppose I did some fake foreshadowing in one story. Part of the plot depends on the sudden, unexpected death of a secondary character. A little while before that I had her give her phone number to the protagonist with a "call me if you ever need to talk"; I wanted to set up an expectation that the protagonist would use that number some day, and then break it, as a way of evoking the ragged edges that kind of death leaves behind.

 

[Gamblnluck]

There's a line somewhere between foreshadowing and simply unfolding a story slowly. I'm not sure where to put that line.

I generally do it. In my longer stories it might or might not evolve into a separate story line and in some cases I drop the thread and consider it as fleshing out the story.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

My latest has a twenty-four year old getting involved with her forty something pseudo uncle(family friend). I blatantly tease it through the entire story and still had people reach out and tell me how wrong it was. I've also written prologue notes for some stories that readers have either forgotten or ignored, calling me out for what I warned them was coming. Subtle, blatant, I don't think it matters. Sometimes the reader just isn't going to get it.