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Readers love spoilers... the art of foreshadowing

Geo

Troubadour
So, as much as everyone that has had a book/movie spoiled by an ungraceful comment may disagree, it turns out we love spoilers, just not big ones.

In trying to learn more about foreshadowing, I discovered this great paper in psychological science that talks about how much people like to find clues (mini spoilers) along what they read.

http://psy2.ucsd.edu/~nchristenfeld/Publications_files/Spoilers.pdf

Apparently how much we like a story correlates nicely with the number of spoilers along the text. My problem, of course, is that I kind of suck at choosing the right spoilers. Why? because I want the reader to feel cleaver by discovering the breadcrumb trail I'm leaving for them, but I don't want it to be too easy. I don't want everything to become obvious from the beginning.

So what happens is that half the time my clues are too obscure to be found (beta readers complaining that not everyone has the analytical mind of a scientist have become a repetitive comment in my latest project), so in an effort to find a middle ground (not too hard/not too easy) I would like to ask, how do you apply foreshadowing to your work?
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
That research paper is really interesting. I didn't expect that.

I'm a little bit curious about the nature of the spoilers, but I guess overall it's the results that are important.
 
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Mythopoet

Auror
To be honest, this doesn't surprise me a bit. I figured out several years ago that I am actually able to enjoy stories more if I know what's going to happen. That way I don't have to devote so much attention to surface events and can devote more attention to appreciating characterization, theme and nuance I might otherwise have missed.

I suspect that this is true for a lot of people who don't realize it. The idea of the "spoiler" has been mostly fabricated by the entertainment industry as just one way to build hype for products. People buy into it and think that "spoilers" will "spoil" things for them because it's right there in the name after all. But I don't think it generally holds water. Though I'm also sure it's not true for a large share of people. Big "twists" are important to some readers. This is just one of the ways people experience things differently.
 

Geo

Troubadour
That research paper is really interesting. I didn't expect that.

I'm a little bit curious about the nature of the spoilers, but I guess overall it's the results that are important.


I was also curious of how significant the spoilers were... and also surprise that some of the books mentioned are mystery novels that suppose to be based on suspense, so...
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
I usually go by feel, so it's hard to articulate the exact process.

The first obvious thing is knowing what you're foreshadowing in as much detail as possible. Knowing guides your word choices, consciously and unconsciously, so if you do it right, there's a subtle foreshadowing the reader feels, but may not be able to put their finger on.

Second is as I edit, I just look for places where the foreshadowing fits naturally in with what's happening. As someone mentioned above, this acts as camouflage.

Third, if your reader is engaged in the story, I mean really engaged, the less likely the foreshadowing gets noticed as such. They're in the moment with the characters. They want to find out what happens next. Unless they're actively looking for clues or the clues are hit-you-over-the-head-a-thousand-times obvious, they won't be thinking about double meanings or why some element is present.

If your reader isn't engaged, their minds wander and they start to wonder about things and pick them apart instead of following the story closely.

That's my general take.
 
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skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Well, spoilers are okay, I guess, but not every story needs them. I am currently reading another volume in Patrick O'Brian's epic and there's really not anything like spoilers in those books.

Another candidate I'd put forward is Robert Howard. No spoilers in Conan stories, but that doesn't make them any less enjoyable. OTOH, a mystery story is all about guessing at what's really going on.
 

Ray M.

Scribe
I read the article, it shows an interesting result. I've found that there are readers who mind spoilers, and readers who don't.

Having worked as game master on a forum roleplay, I know exactly what it's like to have those two kinds of people as readers, the ones who analyze every word they see in your posts and try to find the hidden clues, and want to be prepared for any twists you can throw their way, and those who lay back and take it easy and enjoy the story, and prefer to see it unfold before their eyes. How I handled it is I misled the analyzers with false clues while disguising the real twists underneath them (which was kind of evil now that I think about it, but I couldn't resist), while also entertaining the more laid back readers with in a way lesser twists that the thorough analyzers could find out rather easily.

Generally though, I'd like to make some of my twists somewhat easily accessible, so that everyone who is willing to put some thought to it should figure it out. I take example from one of the greatest stories crafted, in my opinion, Breaking Bad. The show handles foreshadowing masterfully, really. I recommend it for anyone who wants to improve their storytelling abilities - it's so vivid and strong that it's as good as any book you'll read. It gives the viewer hints, it even tells them that this is going to happen, that the bomb is there and it's going to go off, or that the gun is loaded and bullets are going to fly. There are scenes which basically spoil to the viewer what's going to happen next, but they do it in a subtle, brilliant way, like giving away half a truth. Yet I remember when watching this for the first time, I was on the edge of my seat, even while knowing more or less what was going to happen.
 
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I think it might come down to possibility vs probability.

When a twist happens, it's great to realize after the fact that the foundation had already been laid. The clues were there, only I hadn't quite put them together; and, the twist isn't some random, illogical deus ex machina or unmasking of a new or greater threat. While reading up to that twist, it's nice to have suspicion about a possibility, even a kind of gut feeling if not a conscious suspicion. But if the author (or movie director) crosses that line where possibility becomes probability, then I can sometimes be irritated.

Sometimes it's great to have a solid idea before whatever comes. There are cases where an unreliable narrator is obviously missing some clues, where I know what's coming—or very strongly suspect what's coming—and my enjoyment is in seeing how the narrator/character will react to the coming event. Anticipation is at least as strong a factor of enjoyment as the sudden, unexpected twist—and maybe more often so, at least to the degree that building anticipation is far easier than pulling off a major twist.

I like to think of foreshadowing in a concrete way. So imagine there's this freakishly huge elephant—the size of an aircraft carrier, say—standing somewhere ahead of us, but we don't know there is. Imagine a strong light source on the far side of the elephant. The shadow he casts over our present path can be wide and tint everything around us, but its size and distorted shape keep us from realizing that it's in fact the shadow of an elephant. Similarly, many things in the story leading up to that reveal can be tinged by what's coming without revealing it.

Contrast that to having an elephant standing in the middle of the room your characters are in, but they aren't supposed to see him, and neither are you (wink wink), and the author is obviously trying to make much of the fact that this will be a surprise. There comes a point when I want to say, "Just reveal the elephant now, since you all but have already, and move on to something else!"
 

Heliotrope

Staff
Article Team
Foreshadowing is a big deal to me, both as a reader and a writer. I find it is the #1 thing I comment on when critting other people's work, and it is the #1 thing I focus on in my own work.

I think of foreshadowing as "front end loading" tension… or like Chekov's gun, but backwards… where chekov said "if you are going to show a gun hanging on the wall, that gun better go off in the next scene" I believe "If you are going to have a gun go off in the next scene, you better damn well show it hanging on the wall first"…. lol.

I think that foreshadowing does so much for tension. For example, a crit I did a few months back (and he will read this, so don't kill me :) I will leave you nameless)…

He had a wonderful action packed scene where his group ran into a tribe of terrifying natives. However, the scene was missing something… the foreshadowing. In a fantasy series, when you introduce a new type of monster the reader is not familiar with, you can't expect them to suddenly be afraid. They have no context. No understanding of what these beasts are capable of. If I said "The group ran into a rabid bear, starting from weeks of desolate winter and desperate to protect her undernourished cub" you might have images of the emaciated bear, foaming at the mouth, hungry and desperate… you know what a bear is capable of. You know how big they are. You have read news stories or seen on TV how a bear can rip a man apart."

But if I said "the group ran into a pack of Xenobe's and feared for their lives." You have no clue what that means. No context. The response is "So what?"

What you needed to do first was foreshadow. The group is at the tavern. A small boy, maybe four or five stumbles through the door, he is covered in blood, he is missing his hand. Only a tiny stump remains. He collapses to the ground, muttering of the Xenobes, and before he dies you find that his eyes have been removed and in their place you find something sprouting….

Then, when the team runs into the Xenobe's later in the story (Which, the reader already knows that they will, because it has been foreshadowed earlier with the boy) then it is much more terrifying because there is suddenly context and mystery. It is not just a random event.

This is SOOOOO important!

Here is the first paragraph of a story I'm working on, note all the foreshadowing:

The Fig Boy Who Flew Away

Many years after the miracle with the fig boy, when she lost her teeth and sprouted her own wings, Antonia Benedetti would remember a distant afternoon when her husband had taken her to see a war. Every year in March, when all of Italy donned masks and indulged in the rich decadence of Carnival, a troupe of ragged gypsies would set up their tents in the Piazza and with great fanfare and banging of drums they would present the deformed and depraved. Fair Xaninos from Spain, children of the water sprites Xana, chalk white with eyes pink like a rabbits and silver moonbeam hair. The ancient Siofra from Ireland, withered fairies switched with human babies in order to be cared for while they die. Or the broken trolls of Scandinavia, with their curved spines and bulbous heads. But this time the gypsy’s brought something new. An invention. A checked board where two opponents could sit across from each other and wage war with tiny knights and kings without any bloodshed. To Antonia, this invention was sure to generate more peace than his Holiness the Pope himself.

I've told the reader exactly what this story is going to be about. A woman, a miracle, a fig boy (who is likely one of the deformed and depraved that the gypsy's have with them), someone grows wings?

All this foreshadowing puts questions in the readers minds so that they keep reading to find out what the heck is all this going to be about? How is all this going to come together? I've already told them the end…. The fig boy is going to fly away. But what does that mean? How is that significant?

Set up. Front end loading. Placing clues. Until at the very last moment all the pieces come together into focus and the reader understands.
 

AJ Stevens

Minstrel
I think it's great in moderation and it's a useful mechanism to keep the reader turning the page, playing on natural human inquisitiveness. The tricky part, I guess, is making sure the realisation of any foreshadowing isn't, well, a bit naff.

Similarly, I'd want to avoid clichés. I was watching something last night where one of the characters told his companions to run while he made a stand to buy them some time. 'I'll be right behind you,' he said. 'He's dead,' I thought. I was, unsurprisingly, correct.

The truly great writers can do it subtly, weaving it into conversation and narrative so that it doesn't appear out of place on its own, and then... BAM! Something happens - it shocks you, but of course it's been staring you in the face for 300 pages - you just didn't realise it (unless you're one of those people!).

In summary, small foreshadowing, big conclusion works much better than vice versa.
 
Sometimes the foreshadowing is an aspect that's fun to go back and pay closer attention to during a re-read. I plan on dropping little hints here and there for people who like looking for those sorts of things, but it's not going to be something where if you don't pay attention to every little detail you'll miss out on something major.
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
Columbo is a classic example of "spoiler" story telling, where the mystery was not who dunnit, but how the guilty would be outfoxed. For me, there must be something unknown.

Stories more reliant on a "twist" ending, such as Sixth Sense in the movie world, are killed by spoilers, while most movie and genre fictions are at least somewhat predictable... Titanic, tragic love-story right from the start and people will watch it over and over (looking at my wife on that one).

Personally I am not a story re-reader, I find that extremely dull. It's one thing to know the ending but not how you get there, once I've read the whole thing? Danged near impossible for me to re-read something unless compelled.

An emotional connection to the story is probably the key to everything. If a reader is emotionally connected, well, that's the main thing.
 
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Foreshadowing is great when you get to that major plot point and as you read the remaining few pages that lead up to it and everything starts clicking and your anticipation grows by leaps and bounds.

Brandon Sanderson has made the comment a couple or three times in podcasts that he tries to time it so that the picture clicks together for the reader a few paragraphs just before the big reveal.
 
most movie and genre fictions are at least somewhat predictable... Titanic, tragic love-story right from the start and people will watch it over and over (looking at my wife on that one).

Yeah I have an inside track on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Anyone who doesn't want a spoiler should stop reading my comment now.





The Guardians of the Galaxy win.
 
I think of foreshadowing as "front end loading" tension… or like Chekov's gun, but backwards… where chekov said "if you are going to show a gun hanging on the wall, that gun better go off in the next scene" I believe "If you are going to have a gun go off in the next scene, you better damn well show it hanging on the wall first"…. lol.

I think it's important to remember this. While we might often think of foreshadowing a significant plot twist, foreshadowing is useful for creating context more generally. In fact, even with plot twists, all foreshadowing is doing is making sure there's a reasonable context for the plot twist.
 
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Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
I would say the greater issue in the prologue was making the stakes and level of threat more clear than foreshadow. The foreshadow is there, it just wasn't clear for you. That's the best reason to have readers, to find out where things aren't getting across, LOL.

He had a wonderful action packed scene where his group ran into a tribe of terrifying natives. However, the scene was missing something… the foreshadowing. In a fantasy series, when you introduce a new type of monster the reader is not familiar with, you can't expect them to suddenly be afraid. They have no context. No understanding of what these beasts are capable of. If I said "The group ran into a rabid bear, starting from weeks of desolate winter and desperate to protect her undernourished cub" you might have images of the emaciated bear, foaming at the mouth, hungry and desperate… you know what a bear is capable of. You know how big they are. You have read news stories or seen on TV how a bear can rip a man apart."
 
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