Today’s post is written by Amanda Bumgarner.
Two years ago I read Stephen King’s newest (at the time) novel, 11/22/63. I was hesitant at first, not being a fan of horror and never having previously read one of King’s novels. But it came highly recommended from a friend I trusted, so I gave it a shot.
Thus began a week of reading, wherein I refused to put the book down even for a moment. It became one of my favorite reads of 2011, and it’s always one of the first books I mention when I’m asked for a recommendation.
However. (Doesn’t it seem like there’s always a however?)
I did find one sour note, and that was King’s tendency to use foreshadowing.
Often I come across authors who are using this literary device or that one, and when I suggest a change, they say, “But [insert name of famous author] does it!” Whether it’s Nicholas Sparks or J.K. Rowling or George R.R. Martin or Stephen King, the message is the same: if a famous author can do it, I can too.
My answer in these cases is this: just because they’re doing it doesn’t mean they should, and it certainly doesn’t mean you should.
Now, I’m not suggesting that you as an author aren’t allowed to bend or break the so-called rules of writing. But I do think that doing something just because a bestselling author does it isn’t a good excuse. Sometimes they shouldn’t be doing it either. Case in point: Stephen King’s use of foreshadowing in 11/22/63 (i.e., making reference to an event in the story that hasn’t already happened).
So let’s take a lesson from one of the most widely read fiction authors in history and look at three pitfalls of foreshadowing.
1. Excessive Use of Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing can be effective when used correctly, but one sure way to kill the mood is to foreshadow everything and tell nothing. Readers want the story to move; they want things to happen. And if the author is repeatedly saying things like, “Little did she know this would happen” or, “He could have no idea that would happen” but nothing actually does happen, then the book becomes all talk and no action.
Readers will become confused about the possibility of so many upcoming events and start wondering when said events are actually going to happen.
Excessive foreshadowing feeds into another pitfall . . .
2. Foreshadowing an Unimportant Event
Unfortunately, I felt like this happened more than once in 11/22/63. The narrator would make a comment about an event that was to come, and I would wait and wait for it. When it finally arrived, it wasn’t anything to worry about, and I was left feeling let down and taken advantage of.
That’s why it’s best to foreshadow large events that will change a character’s life or change the direction of the plot.
For example: it would be ridiculous if an author foreshadowed what a character was going to eat for lunch. Unless, of course, the lunch ended up being important to the plot. Excessive foreshadowing is a precursor to foreshadowing unimportant events. Both will frustrate readers and cheapen your plot, harming your credibility to make a promise of a plot event to come and then actually deliver.
3. Foreshadowing Too Much
Foreshadowing too much is different from excessive foreshadowing in that the former refers to giving too much information so readers are no longer in suspense. I’ll borrow from another book I read a year or so ago: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I enjoyed this book a great deal, but one thing that bothered me was his use of foreshadowing to tell us early on that a certain character was going to die. There are different opinions about foreshadowing a character’s death, but in general it’s good practice to be careful about giving away too much information.
Foreshadowing a character’s death can be done well—for example, the prologue of Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants (2006). But often I get frustrated when a death is spelled out for me so that I don’t have to wonder what’s going to happen.
Instead of being invested and suspenseful, it’s just a matter of when rather than what.
Foreshadowing can be a useful device and is often used well to add suspense and mystery to a plot, but it can go wrong when used incorrectly. Keeping in mind these three pitfalls will help you create foreshadowing that will engage readers until they’ve turned the last page.
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Absolutely, Amanda. Too much foreshadowing is clunky. Perhaps its main pitfall is that it throws the reader out of a character’s pov into that of the omniscient author. How could that character know what was to come? And who is this strange voice now speaking to us? A little bit of it as a scene hanger is fine, but it’s most plausibly done within the narrator’s pov, as if s/he is reflecting on a past event, I think. Then the reader stays engaged in the story.
Good points. Insignificant events should not be foreshadowed, I agree. If they are foreshadowed, then the reveal should come about sooner rather than later. That way, the reader doesn’t feel let down. If an author is going to make the reader wait, it better be for something important and the payoff better make it worth it!
That first one is more about beginning (or just not very good) writers not delivering a payoff for the foreshadowing, not really about an excess of foreshadowing.
Too much of anything makes the thing dull, dried up, done to death, of course. Relying on any one particular device, ad nauseum, is just tiring. I liked all the little foreshadowing in one book I read, however. But that author walked a fine line, and in that particular book, I thought it was fine. I will have to re-read it to remember what paid off (in the next two books) and what didn’t (yet), though.
I wouldn’t foreshadow a character’s death. Takes the surprise out of it when the time comes. I thought Markus Zusak got away with it, though, because the book was fantastic (after the prologue, anyway).
I just finished Ann Patchett’s ‘Bel Canto’. I was amazed that she told us in the very beginning who wasn’t going to die in the hostage situation. (I don’t remember now if she told us who was going to die. She may have.)
Reflecting on this after I finished the book, I think she probably had a definite purpose for this huge foreshadowing. Maybe it had something to do with wanting the reader to invest emotionally in a big way with the relationships that developed in the course of the story. Does that make sense? Or maybe I’m just imagining that in trying to make sense out of a very unusual tactic.
I’d love to hear thoughts on this from anyone else who’s read ‘Bel Canto.’
A great example of foreshadowing for me was in Barbara Kingsolver’s ‘The Poisonwood Bible’ where we are told early on that one of the 4 daughters will die, but not which one. It’s a brilliant book on many levels but this example of foreshadowing added to the suspense for me, rather than detracted from it. Later on Kingsolver gives a bigger hint which daughter, but then you become interested how she will die and it remains just as suspenseful.
This is timely for me as just last night I commented on some foreshadowing in a novel I’m editing for a client.
She didn’t fall into any of these foreshadowing traps, but I did ask her to be sure that what *felt* like foreshadowing was intentional. Otherwise, readers may be thrown off.
Another client recently told me, when I mentioned that his foreshadowing didn’t have a big enough pay off, if one at all, that this is a technique used by an author he admires. I told him that he wasn’t doing it right either way (in better words, lol), and he fixed it. Now I see that the technique can certainly work!
There’s more to consider when it comes to foreshadowing than one might initially think…Wonderful post.
I like some foreshadowing but sometimes I think it is a bit insulting to the reader’s intelligence (if too obviously done) for, it sort of makes me feel like the author doesn’t think we can put two and two together for ourselves. And of course, if it gives away the end too early then the ending can be as flat as a one night stand ! Like ‘Philomena’ says..one likes to “not see that coming.”
Great post