What’s that on the horizon? Is it a bird…? A plane…? Well, if it’s your story and you’re hinting at what’s coming later, then it’s … foreshadowing! And since we get questions about how to use this writing technique effectively, we’ve pulled together a few ideas here to help you get started.

What is foreshadowing?

Foreshadowing simply means you are drawing attention to certain elements of your story that will be relevant later on. It creates a satisfying sense of catharsis for readers — a sense that your story world is orderly and everything it is has meaning. And … that the reader is able to grasp onto that meaning and appreciate it.

In other words, foreshadowing is an acknowledgement of the reader’s role in the story. Readers love trying to catch clues, draw parallels, notice repeated imagery, and realize later on that something you, the storyteller, mentioned earlier was indeed meaningful. Done right, foreshadowing feels like destiny. Like, of course the reader should have seen this coming! Nothing else could possibly have happened.

Foreshadowing is like hindsight on the reader’s part. It’s 20/20 when viewed after it all comes to fruition. 

But you, as storyteller, as like a clairvoyant. You know what’s coming. So how can you hint at it effectively?

Use foreshadowing to raise questions in the reader’s mind

Foreshadowing prompts readers to notice little things and start wondering about them. It’s sort of like a conversation you’re having with readers, offering breadcrumbs, and keeping them intrigued. So one way into this technique is to make a list of the questions you’d like readers to be kicking around earlier in your story.

• Is there a relationship twist that you want to prepare them for?
• Is there a killer you need to lay down clues for, so the sleuth can later put it all together?
• Does a certain color, object, or location have meaning to characters later on, that you want to hint at now?
• Is there a feeling you want to raise in readers before a powerful story happens? Do you need to create tension, unease, fear, worry, adrenaline…?

Any other questions that occur to you are game here. The bottom line is, what do you want to create a hint about?

Find the Right Place to Drop Those Hints

Once you know the hints you need to drop, it’s time to figure out where to place them. Like breadcrumbs, you’re creating a trail for your Hansels & Gretels to follow, so think about where you can help those hints to stand out, without giving too much away. A few suggestions:

1.     Dialogue — Have a character say something in an earlier scene that will take on new meaning later on, in retrospect. 

If your character needs to learn to listen to other people’s opinions, have a friend of theirs say, “You never pay attention to me. When you learn to respect other people’s opinions, your life problems will get easier to fix.”

Or, if something bad is coming, borrow from Star Wars and have someone say, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Later on, that’ll come to fruition!

2.     Setting — Leverage setting locations and sensory details to create a sense of what’s to come.

Is something bad coming? Take a cue from movie making here, and describe things so that they feel dark and dangerous.

Is a character going to be trapped somewhere? Describe how the setting feels claustrophobic… and then when they get trapped later on, it’ll feel like they were having a premonition.

3.     Character qualities — Describe your characters in ways that hint at who they really are.

Will a blue-eyed lover save your lonely character and redeem her faith in romance? Have her enjoy something that is good earlier in the story, something blue – like a new blue sweater that makes her look great and gives her confidence … just like her blue-eyed lover will do for her by the end of the story.

Is one character going to turn out to be the peeping tom that the police will eventually arrest? Show us his tendency to lurk quietly. Let us notice his eyes watching everything carefully.

4.     Story events — Mirror what’s to come later in a similar, but lower-stakes situation.

Will your character need to escape a darkened warehouse alone? Have them have a hard time finding the stairs in a darkened cellar earlier – like, maybe their own home, but the lightbulb bursts, so it’s difficult at first to get out. But not exactly dangerous, because it’s their own home.

Will a shared loaf of bread be the thing that a couple eat together as they make up from a fight? Tell us earlier in the book that they both love bread. Or have them both waxing eloquently on the merits of sourdough on a day when things seem calm and there’s not much at stake.

Plan where to drop your breadcrumbs

“Ugh! Those editors are talking about planning again — but I like to pants it!”

Look, we get it. Some of you don’t want to get so into detail when you create a first draft. That’s fine. If you pants your stories, you’ll want to do a revision pass after the manuscript is complete that focuses solely on dropping in foreshadowing hints, so you can do so strategically.

For those of you that do like planning — aim to layer in your foreshadowing hints as early as you can, so readers can kind of forget about them as they read. Those hints will end up on the back burner, and then when they become relevant, readers will think, “Oh yeah! I forgot about that! But now I get it!”

Be strategic about what to foreshadow. Not everything needs a preview. But your key emotional moments, major revelations, plots twists, and dramatic action all benefit from foreshadowing. A few examples of this:

• A kid says to his psychiatrist, “I see dead people.” In retrospect, of course he’s talking to a dead psychiatrist. Duh!
• Hamlet gives a speech that starts with “To be or not to be, that is the question.” And eventually he gets the answer – his revenge is to be, because he executes it. But his life isn’t to be, because he ends up dead.
• Luke Skywalker confronts Darth Vader and gets his hand cut off, and ends up with a mechanical hand. Later on, he has to confront Darth Vader again, and the fact that he has that mechanical hand makes him think consciously about what choice he wants to make in his life – dark or light.

You get the idea. Think about your favorite stories and the aha moments they create. And think about the things they chose not to foreshadow. Like … Luke doesn’t drink blue milk anywhere other than at home with Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. The blue milk was interesting to the eye, but it doesn’t mean anything emotionally or existentially, so there’s no need to bring it up again. Foreshadow only the things that will give you resonance later in the story.

Need help with your foreshadowing in your current manuscript? Maybe a manuscript critique or developmental edit can help! Reach out and we’ll do a sample for you, and make recommendations on your next steps.