Rules of Foreshadowing?

[MrNybble]

One of the most common comments I get from my beta reader and writing group is my foreshadowing. Sometimes good and some bad. I have yet to write a single book story so I consider any point in the installment fair game to drop hints. Sometimes I foreshadow in book one and the thing it hints about doesn't come along until book two or three. Been told I must only foreshadow in the same book as the event it hints at. Not sure if this is a hard set rule. Has anybody else written or read stories that foreshadow way in advance?

 

[Prince of Spires]

I don't think there is a hard and fast rule to cover all possible situations here. If you're writing a series then you can add some foreshadowing for a next book in the current book. Plenty of books leave open ends and questions to make a reader pick up the next book in the series. But it depends on how many open ends, how important they are and where in the book it's placed.

For example. Say you hint at a dark empire rising to power somewhere in your world. If you do that at the beginning of the book then as I reader I would expect that empire to feature heavily in the book and there to be some climax involving that empire. However, if you do it at the end of the book and use it more as a thing to set the mood of "the whole world is going to hell" then you can just leave it at that and have that empire feature in the next book.

In general, I think most stuff that goes in a book needs to play a direct role in that book. You can leave some open ends and foreshadowing for a next book. But a reader isn't reading the next book, he's reading this book. And if all stuff only gets resolved in the next book then your reader will be very disappointed and not actually read the next book.

 

[skip.knox]

What the Prince said. You might ask yourself why it's important to foreshadow something in Book 1 that isn't cashed in until Book 3. If you did no such foreshadowing, what would suffer?

 

[MrNybble]

I tend to use many subplots and the books can span decades. When an event happens in say the third book and references stuff in the first, the reader should know what is going on without a massive info dump to play catchup. There are some that like recaps of past events, but I think that slows down the story. I do write with the assumption that the books are read in the correct order.

 

[Peat]

One of the most common comments I get from my beta reader and writing group is my foreshadowing. Sometimes good and some bad. I have yet to write a single book story so I consider any point in the installment fair game to drop hints. Sometimes I foreshadow in book one and the thing it hints about doesn't come along until book two or three. Been told I must only foreshadow in the same book as the event it hints at. Not sure if this is a hard set rule. Has anybody else written or read stories that foreshadow way in advance?

GRR Martin has a decent amount of foreshadowing for his later books in book 1. Ditto Robert Jordan. Ditto maybe every major Epic Fantasy series ever - I'm sure if we all sat down and talked our favourite authors, we'd have tons of examples after a bit. Of course, people don't realise all of it is foreshadowing at the time, some of it is really subtle. But some is not - or at least, not subtle enough. Fans busted a lot of Martin's and Jordan's foreshadowing open before it could make it into book (or TV) form.

In short - for multi-book Epic Fantasy at least, I simply don't see the validity of a rule that says you only foreshadow something in the same book it happens. The greats don't play it that way, so why should we?

 

[Kasper Hviid]

Whilst reading The Alienist, the author beat me over the head with THIS CHARACTER HAS A DARK PAST, but never delivered, at least not in that book. I don't think there's anything wrong with a book painting a bigger picture beyond the main story, but it has to be entertaining on its own.

 

[Penpilot]

You can drop as many or as few hints as you think you need where ever and when ever. But that's the trick, figuring out how many you need as to not show your hand while keeping the element present enough in the story and in the reader's head that when the reveal is done, it's an OMG moment instead of a where-the-heck-did-that-come-from moment.

Unless it's very predominant, nobody is going to remember something dropped on page 2 of the first book if it's never mentioned again and is used in book 10.