Writing Fiction: Foreshadowing

Don’t underestimate the power of foreshadowing. A common complaint from readers is that something happens in a novel “too unexpectedly.” If that’s the case, the author has neglected to foreshadow the event properly.

Foreshadowing is an art. Giving too little detail is as detrimental as giving too much detail about upcoming events. If you’ve prepared an outline, you can more effectively plant information throughout the story to set-up a believable outcome. If you don’t use an outline you’ll most likely have to go back through your story to make sure you’ve foreshadowed it correctly.

In my novel, Heaven Scent, the mother’s distinctive perfume plays a pivotal role at the end of the story. Instead of springing the perfume on readers at the end of the book, I included a few scenes centered on the perfume, including a scene when the daughter talks about how smelling the perfume makes her feel. The way she feels when she smells her mom’s perfume is a critical piece of the end of the novel. If I hadn’t written prior scenes to emphasize the importance of this, the ending wouldn’t have felt realistic.

Foreshadowing events or other important points within the story can be done through dialogue, action, or description. There is a delicate balance, but don’t make it obvious when you are foreshadowing something. You want readers to come to a point in your book, and say, “Oh, that makes sense because way back in the beginning she said/did this.”

If you foreshadow something, be sure to follow up on it. Don’t leave readers wondering what something meant. For example, if you have a gun hanging over the mantle in the family cabin, and conversations take place about the gun and the readers’ attention is brought to the gun, you’ll need to follow through by using that gun in the story. If you never use the gun, readers will wonder why your characters discussed it and it will feel like you didn’t complete that part of the story. Don’t call attention to something if you never intend to use it again in the story.

Foreshadowing is especially important in mysteries. Give readers bits and pieces as your character solves the mystery so that the reader feels like he’s solving it alongside your character. Don’t include random things that have nothing to do with your story. Yes, you can use red herrings (clues that point to the wrong character), but be sure to tie those back in somehow.

Foreshadowing allows you to build the story. The foreshadowing should be almost invisible so readers don’t figure out your story, but not so invisible that readers miss it and the story doesn’t feel realistic.