Foreshadows and Plants in Fiction

Any writer who produces a first draft of a novel will be faced with a really cool dilemma: by “The End,” you’ll acknowledge how much you’ve improved and grown as a writer, but now you’ll also have to make sure the tone and the story are even. A lot of the time revision will include foreshadowing and planting characters or information so the reader won’t be unpleasantly surprised as they read along.
Writing Tip for Today:  Here are some tips on foreshadowing and planting characters and info:

  • Keep a Scene List. As you draft, keep a list of scenes. Use a one sentence tag line to describe the main action. Then, when you go back to plant or foreshadow, indicate where these elements are introduced and then repeated before the actual character or situation goes on stage. I sometimes color code these places so I can see at a glance how often the reference comes up. 
  • Plant ‘Em Early. There’s an unwritten rule that readers don’t like new characters (with substantial stage time) introduced to them past the first half of the story. One way to get around this is to plant the characters–either in dialogue references or by placing the characters in a scene but not letting them be part of the main action right away–much earlier. This way, when the main character begins to interact with the “plant,” it doesn’t feel as if it came out of nowhere. Not everyone agrees with this “rule,” but I tend to want to do as little as possible to alienate a reader.
  • Experiment with Foreshadowing. The writer’s mind is so magical! Many times writers foreshadow an important development and don’t even realize it. Foreshadowing might mean: a dialogue reference, the POV character thinking about something, seeing or hearing something, or even a metaphor that logically foretells of the coming situation or person revealed. Experiment with how obvious or subtle you think this foreshadowing needs to be. The trick is not to hit the reader over the head but not to be so subtle that the reader completely misses the reference.

About Linda S. Clare

I'm an author, speaker, writing coach and mentor. I teach both fiction and nonfiction writing at Lane Community College and in the doctoral program as expert writing advisor for George Fox University. I love helping writers improve their craft and I'm both an avid reader and writer of stories about those with wounded hearts.

2 comments on “Foreshadows and Plants in Fiction

  1. Keeping a scene list is a good idea. So many times I’ve had ideas for a scene written several chapters back and had to scroll up and down to try and find it. Write and learn.

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