I Bet I Think I Know

Posted on 06 November 2009

One of the things that are often talked about in regards to stories is foreshadowing.  This is, in my observation and opinion, even truer for SFF, where you have such tropes as prophecy and fate to play with.  But even if you choose to not use these tools, foreshadowing is a very important thing to think about when writing a story of any length.

That’s right, any length.  Even a 1000 word short story needs a minute amount of foreshadowing.  Part of that is because of the two types of foreshadowing (as I’ll break them up).  Intentional and Necessary.  I know that sounds like a kind of crazy division, but hear me out.

Intentional Foreshadowing is where the author is blatantly and knowingly placing clues for the reader to perhaps catch that will set up later story elements.  They aren’t absolutely needed for the plot to progress or for the story to make sense, but they can be nice ways to tie a story back to itself.

Necessary Foreshadowing can be just as cleverly “hidden” as Intentional, but it has to be there for the plot and story to hold together.  Example: if the villain is going to be the long lost brother of the protagonist, you had better set up some clues and hints throughout (if it is supposed to be a big reveal, at least).

Now, there’s a second aspect to foreshadowing that really seals the deal, and that is how heavy-handed or subtle it is.  Now, I’m not going to say a blatant reveal ruins a story.  American Beauty was an amazing movie, even knowing that the main voice of the story was doomed to die, and there is a book called “John Dies at the End” that is doing pretty well, as I understand it.  But, if you are heavy handed in what is coming, then you’d better be able to pull it off in a spectacular and unexpected way.

On the flip side, if you are subtle, laying everything deeply so that a reader might have to reread the novel (or book series!) in order to see all of the hints, well, that’s well and good, but you had better not get tangled in your own foreshadowing.  Place things too deeply, and if what you have set up could suddenly seem to come out of left field.  Clever it might be, but it can really knock a reader out of the world.

So, rule of thumb?  The more “left-field” your foreshadowed event is, the more “blatant” your foreshadowing.  After all, no matter how fantastical the story, a plot needs to be logically progressing, even if the ruleset of that logic is self-contained within the story.  Long as it obeys itself, and it isn’t overly contrived, you should be good.  Oh, and another thing: when foreshadowing, don’t try and be super-sneaky with something that is blatantly obvious elsehow.  Like, if your back cover is going to say “The long lost brother is trying to resurrect the demon so that he can kill it himself,” then don’t make it take 200 pages for the heroes to figure that out while being beat on the head with clue-by-fours.  Yes, I read a book that was done in.  How it got published . . . I am sure it was a friend of a friend and some luck.  Anyway, yes, foreshadow!  You want your readers to “bet” on things that they might be right on, “think” things they have a good chance to be right on but could be wrong on, and “know” things without it being obnoxious.  There, I tied it back to the title ;P