Foreshadowing is one of the most important tools used by writers in literature to try and create a level of suspense and intrigue in their stories. The idea of foreshadowing is to give hints about things that are to come in the story, building expectations and setting things up. When done properly, it is often highly subtle and almost unnoticeable, but it exists and can be identified if searched for. So for today’s post, I’ll be discussing why foreshadowing is an important literary tool and why you should use it in your next book.
What is Foreshadowing, Exactly?
Foreshadowing is something done in literature that essentially drops hints and makes the reader aware that something is going to happen soon, even if it’s not entirely clear that the foreshadowing is being done. Foreshadowing can be both obvious and subtle, but the ultimate idea is that foreshadowing is supposed to provide a signal of something that will happen later on in the story.
Many books employ the use of foreshadowing because it’s one of the most effective literary tools, especially in stories where there is a lot of suspense and symbolism involved.
I personally live for adding foreshadowing in my own stories, and I will be the first to say that a lot of seemingly normal, basic pieces of dialogue or sentences written are actually EXTREMELY important and literally imply an entire plot point of the story. However, the way I try to hide it makes it almost impossible to detect. I LOVE foreshadowing where it’s so unclear like this, and I think it’s really cool to see how authors foreshadow entire plot points through subtle details and comments.
Different Types of Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is an umbrella term that covers many subtypes that are used in different scenarios and for different purposes, depending on what your goals are for your story.
Concrete
Concrete foreshadowing is basically when an author pretty much outright tells you what’s going to happen. This can be something like a character speaking about what they will do. This is often expressed through the idea of Chekov’s Gun.
Chekov’s Gun basically is the principle that any object mentioned in a story should have some sort of purpose in the overall plot. For instance, if a gun is on the wall and is a piece of decoration, it needs to be fired later in the story.
Prophecy
Prophecy foreshadowing is another direct form of foreshadowing where there is something stated in the story that will eventually happen. This can be a direct prophecy told to the characters or some sort of vague statement made that may not have a clear meaning now but will by the end of the story. I personally find that prophecy foreshadowing is a really interesting tool, and I have used it before in my series, The Fallen Age Saga because a sentence quite literally mentioned in Book 1 may seem completely irrelevant until several books later. This is something that I enjoy doing, personally.
Flashback/Flash-forward
Flashbacks and flash-forwards are literary elements that can basically give your readers an idea of what a character’s life was like before the current point in the story or what it will be like in the future.
Moments in the past and in the future can help to show what will happen with a character and foreshadow what is going to happen very soon. It could be something positive or negative, but it basically needs to hint at something that will happen in the story.
Symbolic
Symbolic foreshadowing is another type that uses symbols to try and hint at things that will be happening later on in the story. For instance, a character sees a hammer in the garage and that hammer is later used as a murder weapon. The character seeing the hammer, or the object, foreshadows that the murder will take place using that particular object.
Red Herring/Fallacy
A red herring is a phrase used to describe a misleading clue that is supposed to divert the attention away from the real thing it is covering up for. In the case of foreshadowing, a red herring is used to mislead the character and/or the reader and to create surprise. The red herring throws the readers off so that they can’t tell what is actually going to happen. This is especially used in mystery stories.
Why is Foreshadowing Important in Literature?
It’s Great for Creating Suspense
I’ve talked about suspense before on my blog, but suspense is a really important technique in literature and can definitely be enhanced by foreshadowing techniques. Foreshadowing can imply that there is some sort of danger coming in the story, which will keep readers tense waiting for what was foreshadowed to happen, even if they don’t realize that you’re foreshadowing.
It’s Great at Building Anticipation for the Future
Since foreshadowing basically sets up what will happen in the future of the story’s events, the reader will feel more curious and compelled to continue reading to see if there is a potential importance for something that was foreshadowed. In addition, if the foreshadowing is more direct and clear, it lets the readers feel more like there is something ahead, so they will want to see how the writer curates the story to reach that point.
Foreshadowing Ties Things Together
Even if something isn’t super clear from the beginning, foreshadowing provides for an opportunity to connect otherwise disconnected things together. If readers see something that is a foreshadowing tool being used but do not recognize it, they may piece that together later in the story when they actually reach to the point that you had been foreshadowing.
For instance, Chapter 2 of Soldat, Book 2 of my series, The Fallen Age Saga, is quite literally foreshadowing something extremely important but it’s not really that clear in the beginning. Sure, it seems like an important chapter, but the “why” is something you won’t find out until much later.
Where to Use Foreshadowing in Your Story
Now that we know about the types of foreshadowing and why foreshadowing is actually important, where can you realistically employ foreshadowing techniques in your story? Well, there are quite a few places where an opportunity can easily arise to throw in some foreshadowing in your story.
Don’t Shy Away From Dialogue
Dialogue is often one of the best ways to throw foreshadowing in a story. Even if the statement seems vague or unclear, it can actually be hinting at the most important plot point in your story. I used dialogue quite often in Malware to foreshadow things, such as in Chapter 22 at the end when Blide says “We need to be careful. We’re treading on dangerous ground.” This is a pretty vague statement especially when compared to other statements he’s made in the story, but it implies that whatever events take place after this chapter ends will be very perilous and the stakes are getting higher.
Flashbacks and Flashforwards
Flashbacks and flashforwards, as I mentioned earlier, are pretty prime places to throw foreshadowing in a story. I used this a lot in Book 1 and Book 2 of The Fallen Age Saga, and there are many scenes dedicated to flashbacks. I personally don’t write flashforwards, but if you choose to, you can show what will happen to the protagonist of your story and make your readers feel a lot more interested in what’s about to happen and how it happens.
Symbols and Images
Symbolism is a great way to throw foreshadowing into your story, as you can hint at objects, places, settings, motifs, etc… to try and foreshadow something deeper ahead in the story. Imagery and descriptive language in a story can also highlight certain things, colors, or objects to try and foreshadow something in a subtle way, as the foreshadowing tool is basically hidden in the description of that particular scene.
Character Interactions and Reactions
Characters reacting to events or even interacting with each other can be a great way to provide foreshadowing to readers. The main character may begin to notice things that progressively get worse, but the way it is conveyed is subtle in a way that foreshadows something dark ahead. The way characters begin to act around the main character may also foreshadow something that will happen near the end of the story.
Balancing is Required
Foreshadowing is a great tool, but like any other literary tool, it’s important to use it in moderation and to be subtle with it so that your readers don’t feel so overwhelmed trying to figure out the foreshadowing happening and trying to distinguish regular sentences from important sentences. However, too little is also a problem because it’ll make plot twists or major events that happen in a story feel out of place or too sudden/random.
Being subtle is honestly my biggest tip. An innocent conversation can reveal something that will happen without you being very obvious with it to the point where your readers can literally detect that something is wrong. Furthermore, timing the placement is important to think about. Too early or too late, and your readers may not really feel the impact of it on the overall story.
If you write in the thriller genre, you may also want to think about using red herrings more than some of the other forms of foreshadowing. However, overdoing the red herring thing will annoy your readers a lot more than you think and it’ll start to feel like a cheap tool. I notice that TV shows sometimes overuse the red herring, especially in cop shows, and let me tell you… it’s not a red herring at some point.
Foreshadowing is honestly one of the best literary tools and I think that its potential in enhancing a story is unmatched. Foreshadowing can propel your themes forward, it can propel your plot without the reader even noticing, and it can literally connect the beginning to the end in a clean way.
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