My wife
once told me that, when she was young, it used to amaze her how writers could
put all that foreshadowing in their books and have all the loose threads come
together at the end. It blew her mind – not to mention, disappointed her – when
she got older and realized that writers could go back and add foreshadowing
earlier in the book after writing the end.
I think
that foreshadowing is one of the most complicated aspects of writing, yet is
one of the most important ones. How would you feel about reading a book where
the masked villain is revealed at the end and... it’s someone you never even
heard of before? What if you were reading along and got to the end of a book,
only to discover that there was a whole other plot going on in the background
that had nothing to do with the rest of the book, and that was never even
hinted at? You’d probably be pretty disappointed. Surprised – but disappointed.
I think the
best-known use of foreshadowing is in the Harry Potter series. You know what I’m
talking about. Or, if you don’t, go read the series and find out. If you read
the series a second time (or have a very good memory), you’ll start seeing
things from all the way back in book one that hint at the great reveal – and it’s
truly amazing how much there is that connects.
But,
wait... there are 7 Harry Potter books (well, in the main series, at any rate)
and the big reveal is in the last one – J.K. Rowling certainly didn’t have all
the books completely written when the first was published. She didn’t have the
option of going back to add those bits in. So, how did she do it?
Well, it’s
because there is more than one way to foreshadow. In this case, it was
excellent planning. This big reveal was practically the whole point of the
entire series – it was something that was planned from the beginning and, as
such, it was easy for Rowling to put in. In this case, the hard part was
keeping it subtle enough to not alert the readers.
Of course,
not all foreshadowing can be planned in advance. Sure, writers generally know
how their books will end, but they don’t know all the separate elements – those
are discovered along the way. Then, if needed, the writer can always go back
and add them later, after completing the manuscript (but before publishing it).
Yet, there
is still another way to foreshadow, something that is almost a combination of
the previous two. Writers can often foreshadow as they go. How? There are two
ways. The first is simply having an idea of what’s going to happen in the story’s
future, and spotting opportunities to drop little hints (usually accompanied by
snickering behind a hand and statements like, “They’ll never catch this!”). The
other is to link ideas backwards as you go along. A book being written is
almost a living thing – it expands and grows as the author writes it, sometimes
turning into something entirely different than was initially intended. A writer
can keep in mind things they wrote previously in the book and be just as amazed
as the reader when it turns out to be a hint later in the book. This is done
much like guessing at what will happen next when you’re reading – only, as the
writer, you get to decide what actually does happen. The writer writes
something, uses it to make a prediction of what it could mean for the future,
then makes it happen.
So, Young
Colleen wasn’t entirely wrong – sometimes writers do put the foreshadowing in as they go, and it can be very
impressive. But, as with all skills, it’s important to remember that there’s
more than one way of doing everything, and none of them is better than the
other. The important part isn’t how you create the foreshadowing – what matters
is having enough foreshadowing that when the reveal comes, the reader can put
together all the pieces and feel like the story is plausible.
Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.
Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.
If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.
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