Literary Gem: "Foreshadowing"
Let’s say you’re a writer. You want to create suspense. Dramatic tension. Here’s a literary device you just might like. … It’s called “Fore-shadowing”—and it’s a great way to set expectations for your readers.
I’m Jim Lamb … Let’s get started.
When done correctly, “Foreshadowing” is a bread-crumb for the reader. … A clue. A nudge. A wink. An inkling about what’s to come.
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It could be right in the title, like in Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express” or Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.”
Sometimes a song can foreshadow where a story is going, like Dorothy singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in “The Wizard of Oz
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Or it could be a particular phrase, like “I see dead people” in “The Sixth Sense.”
In fact, suggestive phrases are my favorite Foreshadowing technique.
Here are some examples:
Remember when Han Solo said, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
I had a bad feeling about it, too.
Or how about when Juliet said of Romeo: “Go ask his name.—If he be married, my grave is like to be my wedding bed.”
Talk about a hint!
In “Lord of the Flies,” William Golding wrote a line that (in my opinion) absolutely nailed it: “We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages.”
But “Foreshadowing” doesn’t have to accomplish its goal with words or phrases:
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It could be the use of a color, like in “The Sixth Sense.”
The unsettling action by our fine-feathered friends in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds.”
The threatening weather in “Twister,” “Wizard of Oz,” and “The Perfect Storm.”
- The mercy killing of a dog in “Of Mice and Men.”
- Or, perhaps the most successful foreshadowing example of all time, the music in “Jaws”:
Ba-dum. …Ba-dum. … Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum!
So the next time you want to entice readers, consider dropping a hint, a crumb, a nudge, or a wink. It might just turn your book into a real page-turner.
I’m Jim Lamb, and you’ve just learned a little Somethin’-Somethin’ about Foreshadowing.
Copyright 2021