Valley of the Foreshadowing of Death
Foreshadowing is an early warning for readers and characters alike. It’s the ominous cloud, the tornado siren, the tide receding. It can be on the more obvious side or the more subtle side. Imagery or dialogue or otherwise.
What is effective foreshadowing?
Effective foreshadowing is a few things. One, it is used sparingly and only for relevant, important events or revelations. Two, it’s not so subtle it’s impossible to catch the first time and it’s not so obvious that the reader knows 100% it’s signaling that something bad will happen. It should be something indefinite the first read and obvious the second. In other words, it should unsettle the reader the first time they read it and confirm their suspicions after they read the scene it foreshadows.
Effective foreshadowing also has a payoff. There’s closure and validation in the foreshadowing. If you have a tornado siren and no tornado, you have some explaining to do.
Why should you use foreshadowing?
Foreshadowing doesn’t naturally fit in all the time, but when it does it can provide suspense or hidden causes of events. Though it can be a complicated concept to some (including myself up until, like, a year ago), its payoff is a more enriched, complex plot.
When should I add the foreshadowing in?
Make your entire outline. Then go back and look for opportunities. You need to be able to look at the whole picture before placing anything in.
No. It’s a stylistic choice no matter the plot, genre, et al. Though for thrillers, mysteries, dramas, horror, and the likes, it is easier to add in and has more benefits. And as long as you’re careful and follow the suggestions, it really can’t hurt to add more depth like this to any genre or story.
What does foreshadowing look like when it comes to editing and revising?
It looks messy. Because it probably looks obvious to you the thousandth time you think/write about it. You should be open to editing it and moving it to a different scene and things like that while editing alone. However, big changes or the removal of it shouldn’t be your go-to. Use your beta readers, critique partners, or even just a friend who is willing to read the story. See how they respond to it when they go in with fresh eyes (i.e. don’t tell them what to look for beforehand). If they find it offputting, obvious, too subtle, or anything like that, ask how they think it would work better. In the end, go with your gut, edit to your liking, and have them read it again.
This is all good and fine, but how do I actually add foreshadowing to my story?
Before we get to that, let’s examine the big “Don’t” of foreshadowing:
Cliches. Cliches offer none of the enrichment or suspense original foreshadowing techniques do. A character that can definitively sense danger is a cliche. An old character vaguely warning the MC is a cliche. If you can subvert these cliches into nuanced tropes, then awesome! If not, don’t use them.
Alright, here are 6ish ways to add foreshadowing:
This is a dangerous game because it can veer into cliche territory very easily and it’s overused in certain genres. So use this wisely.
For this technique, characters use cryptic or unspecified names for an event, person, or place.
This is very overused in sci-fi and fantasy. Very, very overused. So I would only have one occurrence of it within a work of these genres, if at all. As for other genres and stories, it can actually feel fresh. If you have a modern-day suburbian thriller, for example, having a bunch of soccer moms refer to a mysterious event as The Sharpening is freaky.
This is easiest to use with subtlety in visual media, but not unachievable in prose fiction if we tweak a few things. In visual media like a film, the Background Object is something that is off. It’s also not fully noticed upon first glance. But it’s there in plain sight, just beyond the focus.
In prose fiction, the use of a background object changes a little. Instead of being an early warning sign, it becomes an in-scene warning sign. You can’t really have a character mention or see an off-putting object without it being too obvious of a foreshadow. (You can still include something like this, it just wouldn’t be foreshadowing.)
However, if you have them mention or see a specific and normal object, it can be a warning sign later.
For example, say a character sees a gilded, jeweled chalice while exploring the secret lair of an unidentified bad guy. In the lair, it blends in with other junk like it. It’s part of the scenery, not the focus. But the character notes it in passing. Later, while they still don’t know the identity of the bad guy, they go to a dinner party hosted by a local aristocrat. The aristocrat makes a toast… rasing his gilded, jeweled chalice. Maybe only the readers notice this and the character ends up in a trap or maybe they notice, too, and form a plan. Either way, we’ve been warned beforehand. Boom! Foreshadowing!
This one is pretty similar to numero dos in the way that it mostly relies on the background and things out of our main focus.
For this, there’s a specific image or motif that shows up periodically or at a particular place/with a particular person. It’s off-putting, but without reason. There’s just… a feeling.
My favorite example is from the movie Sorry to Bother You. Without spoiling it (because you should see it!), there’s a scene where the MC enters a new setting with a sketchy character. We as an audience are already unsettled by the character himself. And what doesn’t help that unsettling feeling… is the horse motif in his room. Horses… everywhere. Soon after, we learn the real meaning behind all of that imagery. Rewatching it makes the horse motif just that much unsettling.
4. Speaking of sketchy characters…
Our best defense as humans is our gut. We know when something is off, even if it’s subtle or maybe just a byproduct of hypervigilance. We can feel it. Your characters are no exception. If another character, a place, or something occurring around them is… off, they can pick up on it! Like the example in #3, a sketchy character sets off all kinds of alarms. Especially if the MC has never met or been alone with them before. Weird propositions, vague comments, and undecipherable ramblings add up to a heap of creep. It’s usually more of an in-scene warning rather than an early warning, but not always. And the worst part is that it’s indefinite until the reveal. We don’t know if the character is actually secretly evil. We can’t really prove that the feeling means what we think it means. We could be wrong. And maybe we are and it’s a red herring…
What happens when you keep showing small bits and pieces of the same flashback? Suspense! You’re foreshadowing that this event has a big impact on what’s going on and/or what has set the whole thing in motion. But we don’t get enough to tell what exactly happens or what it means. Not yet. Until we see the whole picture, we as a reader assume it’s the missing piece in the puzzle of the quest. It could be the answer they need. It doesn’t have to be, but the whole picture should reveal a critical bit of information nonetheless.
6. Symptoms, Symptoms, Symptoms
For this technique, I’ll be using a metaphor (that in and of itself could be a literal use of this technique).
We have a very sick character that’s been poisoned. But we don’t know he’s sick yet. And we definitely don’t know that he’s sick because of a poisoned food supply yet.
We start by watching him develop the first symptoms. Easy-to-shrug-off symptoms everyone largely ignores. Nausea. Headache. Fatigue.
Then, he gets worse. Throwing up. Sweating. Weak muscles. We, along with more characters around him, starting to notice something is off.
Then, the final straw. The point of no return when no one can deny something is wrong. He passes out. He needs emergency care. Maybe he dies.
But wait. It’s not just him. Other people are showing the same symptoms he did. The characters investigate and the problem is found.
That first sick character is the early warning system. But it isn’t until he’s right up in our face, sick as a dog, that we see it. And by then, it’s too late.
Hopefully, you’re following me on the metaphor and you’re seeing the potential. Personally, nothing is more gut-wrenching than foreshadowing that isn’t apparent until it’s too late. That’s primo storytelling for me.
The sick character can be anything. The poisoning can be any wrongdoing. The symptoms should follow the stages of intensification but can be anything relating to the wrongdoing’s effect.
You can also take the same idea of sickness and tweak it. Maybe flowers start to wilt and die. Then it’s entire gardens. Then animals. It’s too late to do anything once it’s your pet. Your neighbor. You. After some investigation or reveal, we find out there’s been radiation poisoning. Because of a secret military experiment.
This was a long explanation full of examples, but hopefully you get it.
7. Something is Out of Place
This is pretty close to previous ones, but I feel it deserves its own place. This is simply something (or somethings) that exists or happens that doesn’t make sense right away.
The clearest example I can think of is from The Last Jedi. Luke Skywalker and Kylo Ren’s final showdown is filled with this technique.
We find out Luke is astral projecting to the fight. He’s not really there. But we don’t know this at the beginning of the fight. Before the reveal, we get hints.
These hints don’t add up or make total sense as they happen (and stay this way until we learn he’s projecting).
We see that Kylo’s foot breaks through the white outer layer of ground to reveal the red underbelly. We see that Luke’s doesn’t. He also shows up in the rebel base without alerting anyone, even though it’s been established there’s no way in or out except through the First Order. AND, he appears more well-kempt and groomed than we’ve seen the entire movie.
If you don’t discount these signs right away as mistakes, they become a warning sign.
What about other techniques?
There are so many ways to foreshadow. Much more than I could ever list here. As always, my main piece of advice is to watch and read stories. Be on the lookout for foreshadowing uses.
I have a question that isn’t in this FAQ.
Send me an Ask. If I feel I didn’t properly cover the answer already, I will add it to this post. If it’s not Anon, I will credit you for asking.
I really hope this helps! I spent a good while on this to try and make it as thorough as possible for clarification!
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