My Passion's Pen

Foreshadowing is using suggestive words or phrases that give hints of future events in the story. It can be used to build suspense or to prepare the reader for impending events without revealing too much of what is to come.

Without foreshadowing, readers have no expectations because you haven’t provided them with any. Since many beginning (and even some veteran) author struggle with foreshadowing, I wanted to offer these tips.

• Make sure the incident needs foreshadowing. Not every event needs it and overusing it will cause the effect to be lost on the reader. It should only be used for the major events in your novel.
• Remember to follow through on the foreshadowing. If you introduce a gun (or a mystic stone), it will need to appear as an important piece of the story or your reader will feel cheated.
• If you are building suspense, your foreshadowing should be more…