Writers in the Storm

by Ellen Buikema

Foreshadowing is a literary device used to hint at plot developments that don't happen until later in the story, and can be achieved directly by making clear statements, or indirectly using subtle clues.

• Foreshadowing can be so subtle that it goes unnoticed.
• Often foreshadowing can increase the sense of mystery by suggesting that some event might occur but not how.
• Foreshadowing helps prepare readers for later scenes, builds a sense of suspense, and can help tie up loose ends.

Why Use Foreshadowing?

Writers use foreshadowing to prepare their readers to understand the plot as it develops. But it may also:

• Encourage readers to focus on certain details.
• Create a sense of tension.
• Give scenes a special significance.
• Create thematic connection between various scenes.
• Connect a work's beginning and end.
• Emphasize a character’s struggle against fate.

Consider the movie Die Hard.

John McClane moves toward to the Nakatomi Plaza to meet his wife for a Christmas party via a relatively calm plane ride. The writers wove the plane ride with cuts of a truck driving through LA traffic using a menacing music bed. This foreshadows the crossing of the paths, the meeting of John and the criminals at Nakatomi Plaza.

John McClane is barefoot, increasing the complications and risks. It was foreshadowed from the very first scene of the movie, learning about making fists with your toes, so that his bare feet seem like a logical occurrence.

5 Tips for Using Foreshadowing in Your Writing

Foreshadowing can be a tricky.

Here are some tips for achieving a fine balance of foreshadowing.

1. Plan your story. You need to know where your story is headed before you can decide what to foreshadow, and how that will happen. It can help to wait until a later draft to include foreshadowing. Plan, revise, and plan more.
2. Drop those breadcrumbs as early as possible. Foreshadowing right before an event can act as a “spoiler.” Give readers space. Make sure foreshadowing takes place long enough before the event so it’s not fresh information.
3. Scatter those crumbs. When deciding where and when to foreshadow, be crafty. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Instead, distribute your foreshadowing throughout the story.
4. Foreshadow in moderation. Don’t wear your readers out. Craft the right balance. This will encourage readers to look back through your story to find the clues you left.
5. Enlist feedback. As the writer, you are closest to the story, you may think that the foreshadowing is perfectly clear—but another set of eyes can really help! Find a willing victim, I mean friends, fellow writers, and hand them your manuscript. Ask them if the clues were too many, too few, too obvious, or just right.

Literary Devices Similar to Foreshadowing

There are several literary techniques that overlap with foreshadowing.

 “If a gun is hanging on the wall in the first act, it must fire in the last.” —Anton Chekhov

• Chekhov’s gun: is a writing tool often confused with foreshadowing. According to Chekhov, every element in a story should contribute to the whole, and each detail that “sets up” an outcome should “pay off” in some way. Eldred Bird wrote more on this topic.
• Red herring: Unlike foreshadowing, which hints at something that will happen in the story, a red herring is designed to mislead and distract the reader. Red herrings are often used in mystery novels, with characters suspected of a crime turning out innocent.
• Flashforward: A flashforward gives readers a glimpse at the future. This is different from foreshadowing, as you’re showing your readers what’s coming. Stories that use flashforwards develop suspense not from what will happen, but rather how it will happen.

Examples of Titles with Foreshadowing

The title of a story can be used to foreshadow plot events. Here are examples of titles that include foreshadowing:

• Murder on the Orient Express
• The Story of an Hour
• As I Lay Dying
• The Fall of the House of Usher
• Love in the Time of Cholera
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Foreshadowing Examples

Some common elements used in foreshadowing can be found here. 

The following are examples of foreshadowing from well-known stories:

• In The Fault in Our Stars, John Green tells readers what is going to happen to Gus: “Osteosarcoma sometimes takes a limb to check you out. Then, if it likes you, it takes the rest.” Much later, readers learn what that means.
• Readers learn about life on a spaceship, The Australia, in Way Down Dark by James P. Smythe. The name of the ship foreshadows the twist of the novel.
• Jane Fitch’s White Oleander, has Astrid describe her mother as beautiful, but every description has an element of danger. Her mother’s beauty is like ‘the edge of a very sharp knife’ and ‘her blonde hair, like a white flame.’  She refers to the Oleanders with their ‘dagger green leaves’ and ‘delicate poisonous blooms.’ By combining the beauty with danger as a metaphor for her mother, she foreshadows her mother’s actions. Every part of the oleander is poisonous.

• Agatha Christie populates the train with people all connected to the victim, foreshadowing the revelation that the murder was a group effort in Murder on the Orient Express.
• In J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry’s discovery of the Mirror of Erised foreshadows his discovery of the Sorcerer’s Stone and the identity of the story’s villain.
• In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, repeated references to books being banned and burned foreshadowed the destruction of books and knowledge.

Foreshadowing is an effective device for nearly any type of literary work and most forms of storytelling media. This includes poetry, novels, TV, and the movies. Here are some examples of foreshadowing from these forms of art.

Poetry

• The bleak, late night setting in Poe’s The Raven.
• In Amy Lowell’s poem, A Fairy Tale, the unbidden guest foreshadows the presence of an evil figure.

Novels

• "It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what." —Atticus. In To Kill a Mockingbird Atticus explains courage to his children while foreshadowing the outcome of his legal case.
• The symbolic and real pain of Harry’s scar in the Harry Potter series.

Television and Movies

• Stanley Kubrick used recurring images of blood pouring from elevators, foreshadowing the future violence in Stephen King’s The Shining.
• At the beginning of the last episode of the Breaking Bad series, Walter White looks through the glove compartment of the car he stole to go back to New Mexico. A cassette tape, El Paso by Marty Robbins, falls out.

The lyrics foreshadow the final outcome for Walter.

“I saddled up and away I did go, riding alone in the dark. Maybe tomorrow, a bullet may find me. Tonight, nothing’s worse than this pain in my heart”.

Walter’s death is foreshadowed as he begins the drive, riding alone, to rescue Jesse Pinkman.

Do you use foreshadowing in your writing? What is your favorite tale that uses foreshadowing?

* * * * * *

About Ellen

Author, speaker, and former teacher, Ellen L. Buikema has written non-fiction for parents, and The Adventures of Charlie Chameleon chapter book series with stories encouraging the development of empathy—sprinkling humor wherever possible. Her Works In Progress are The Hobo Code, YA historical fiction and Crystal Memories, MG Magical Realism/ Sci-Fi.

Find her at https://ellenbuikema.com or on Amazon.

Image by Joe from Pixabay

by Laurie Schnebly Campbell

Some books open with a tornado roaring through town and leaving the protagonist without any house, transportation, light, or even food.

Others open with the protagonist discovering their soon-to-be spouse is already married with six kids at home.

Some open with a protagonist getting a phone call: “To get your twin back alive, bring three billion dollars to the Marrakesh airport Tuesday at noon.”

Any of those incidents COULD be where the trouble starts.

But not every reader -- or writer, for that matter -- wants this kind of external drama on page 1.

Some prefer seeing the tension build more gradually.

Some enjoy the kind of suspense that leaves ‘em afraid to turn out the lights.

Some want a conflict where the protagonist’s biggest challenge is more internal than external.

Some readers like ALL those possibilities, both the externally dramatic and the internally dramatic, along with thousands of others. (Those are the ones we want to be writing for!)

But either way, we want our characters challenged.

When you look at the trouble in your book, where does it come from?

Ideally some of it is external, because characters who decide to take any specific action are just more interesting.

And some of it is internal, because knowing this person more deeply increases how much we care about their outcome.

Pretty much all of us, whether we’re reading OR writing, want a book’s characters to be interesting...and we want them to make us care.

One very effective way of accomplishing both those goals is to -- oh, right -- get ‘em in trouble.

“The flood waters are rising and I can’t find Jacob!”

“Until that summer, I always thought I’d see my mother again.”

“No matter what, I cannot lose this job.”

“Brad and Gina are BOTH coming, and I just know Roxy’s gonna be there.”

“How could a simple mosquito bite have gotten this bad, this fast?”

Seeing people in trouble makes us curious.

We want to know more. What’s going on?

How did this come about?

Why were they caught by surprise?

Who’s on their side?

What are they gonna do?

What if that doesn’t work?

If we like what we see of these people, it makes us want to know a LOT more. Not just about the situation they’re in, but also how this particular person is going to handle it.

Anybody, for example, could get a simple mosquito bite that turns into a festering lesion five hours later. But their response to this situation will be tremendously different, depending on the kind of person they are.

Someone who’s a perfectionist will have a different reaction than someone who’s an adventurer. Neither of ‘em is likely to have an easy time dealing with this suddenly dangerous wound, unless they happen to be a doctor specializing in weird diseases, but the WAY they deal with it is gonna create different types of conflict for each of them.

It goes beyond the conflict caused by just the situation.

We can bet that perfectionist P.J. will immediately start seeking out expert advice, following the instructions on WebMD right down to the millimeter length of the cotton swab, and looking for the doctor’s phone number to display prominently on the refrigerator door in case paramedics have to come rushing in. “Hmm, is that red-letter printing big enough? Is it TOO big?” And so on.

On the other hand, adventurous Ali will be posting photos of the growing wound, debating with the pizza delivery guy whether this is worse than the time Marty got bit by a snake, and wondering whether it’s faster to skateboard or hitchhike to the ER. “Whatever happened to that skateboard, anyway? How come nobody stops when you wear a windmill beanie?” And so on.

Same challenge. Completely different story.

So you can see how the trouble starts long before the mosquito ever bit Ali or P.J. The trouble begins with the kind of person they are.

Conflict Starts in the Head

That’s why it makes sense to look at each character’s type or subtype or archetype, and how ANY conflict in their life will be influenced by what makes ‘em unique.

If we've got ten people on a leaking boat, for instance, all ten will have a different struggle ahead of them. Stay afloat, sure, but that doesn't stay intriguing for long. Who's gonna blame the captain? Who's gonna watch for sharks? Who's gonna write texts to their loved ones? Who's gonna inflate life rafts? Who's gonna jump first? Who's gonna panic? Who's gonna pray? Who's gonna tell jokes?

Knowing the answers to such questions makes it far easier to create characters who’ll naturally encounter their own conflict, no matter what challenge they face. Because it’s already built into the kind of person they are.

And that’s what makes conflict “from the head down” so important!

Prize Drawing Question

Speaking of conflict, how would the protagonist of whatever book you’re currently writing or reading react to a mosquito bite that seemed ordinary a few hours ago but now seems to be turning dangerously strange?

Would they panic? Would they do research? Would they call a friend? Would they laugh it off? Would they -- well, you get the idea.

You might know this person so well it’s like answering how YOU would react. You might still be just getting to know them. Either way, I’d love to hear what comes to mind…as soon as I close the blinds to avert any potentially fatal mosquitoes!

By the way, somebody who comments on that question will win free registration for “Building Conflict from the Head Down,” a May 8-19 email class on creating characters who’ll automatically run into trouble not only with each other and with various situations...but also with themselves. On Friday evening I’ll have random dot org draw a name and post it waaaaay down at the end.

About Laurie:

After winning Romantic Times’ “Best Special Edition of the Year” over Nora Roberts, Laurie Schnebly Campbell discovered she loved teaching every bit as much as writing...if not more. Since then she’s taught online and live workshops including the one at groups.io/g/ConflictHD, and keeps a special section of her bookshelves for people who’ve developed that particular novel in her classes. With 50+ titles there so far, she’s always hoping for more.

Top image by Deleyna via Canva

By Kris Maze

The term YA as it refers to novels only requires that the protagonist be a teen and ideally the plot is shown through the experience a teen would face, but it can be difficult to write young adult stories in a believable and engaging way. Writing for young adults (YA) can be a tricky petulant monster, but it’s full of fun tropes and has a strong fan-base.

How can we pull of believable and enticing YA? As long as the main character is between the ages of 13 and 19, or could be in high school, and the plot aligns with a teen’s reality, the basics of good grammatical writing still apply. But there are a few extra caveats to make your YA stories shine brighter than an application of Kissing Stick Lip Gloss.

YA writers may run into common issues because of these specific requirements (teen protagonist, plot and theme centered on teen issues, teen problems inform the story.) We have to be careful not to alienate our audience by acting like we are currently that age, and let’s face it, most of us have left those years far behind. But it is also important to write in teen-speak and to house our story within the constructs of believable characters and events.

So how do non-teenaged writers manage to create novels that will engage both teen readers and adults alike? Well, in true teen style, we learn to break some of the traditional writing rules.  What is more appealing to an adolescent than reading something that would make their traditional English teacher cringe? See what tips can make your YA story the page burners these books tend to be.

Dialogue is fair game for tomfoolery.

Dialogue is a great tool to draw readers into a story and YA writers should use it a lot. One reason YA readers enjoy this type of book is the ease of reading. It’s easier to focus on the story and when the eye sees breaks on the page with short dialogue segments, it’s like a mental breath of story air. One way dialogue works its magic is that it breaks up white space on the page.

Short segments of description and action with quick-paced dialogue can keep a YA story moving along in the same way a teen experiences life, through what they hear. Let the characters tell their thoughts and feelings (or what they are refusing to talk about), and the reader will pay attention.

Consider having characters that have a variety of backgrounds and dialects.  Each character’s voice should be easily identifiable through their choice of words and personality. Teens have different ways of speaking from adults, but also with a lot a variety. Make it easy for your reader to understand who’s speaking and bring them into your story.

Keeping that dialogue authentic is key. Teens may speak in grunts or eloquent snarky jabs. But one thing is certain. It is not long grammatically correct sentences. Try saying any section of dialogue aloud to check for authenticity.

We don’t always speak with grammar in mind.  Let the dialogue reflect what the speech sounds like. Does it sound like the kid down the block? Your niece or babysitter?  Minimally, does it sound like a popular teen character in a series you love?  Be sure to make your characters sound like teens and your story will sparkle because of this extra attention to detail.

Grammar be damned.

Grammar is great if you are trying to get a perfect SAT score, but we are writers. Purveyors of story and fantasy.  We have unique license to break these rules in the name of provocative storytelling. Readers expect a voice that is inexperienced, unsure, impulsive, and not full of stoic, grammar-police perfectly practiced English.

Grammar is a vehicle for communicating and it should make reading easier. To keep the grammar as smooth as possible and adhere to good writing skill, consider the following:

• It’s a good idea to use grammatically simple expressions. For example, for whom is grammatically correct in specific cases, but awkward in YA works. It could just be my opinion, but breaking some rules for the sake of readability may be something to discuss with your editor.
• Other cases where you are tempted to add big, flowery, literary examples of beatific writing, it’s probably going to stick out like a sore thumb.
• Avoid cliches that may be dated and not make sense to younger audiences. Why is it a sore thumb? Who’s thumb is it? What are we talking about?
• Shorter sentences are better but use variety. Whatever grammar tools make your writing super smooth will keep younger; less-into-reading-readers interested in your story.
• And avoid using semi-colon.  I’m pretty sure I have never seen one in a YA book.  Please correct me in the comment below if you can identify one.  😊

Run on sentences? It could be just the right thing.

 Have you ever been told in English class that you have run-on sentences?  There is a time and place for a version of this mishap of writing, and it can be a great addition to YA fiction.  Anyone who has learned the Deep Edits system designed by Margie Lawson, would be familiar with her teachings on rhetorical devices.

One that is appropriate for YA works is polysyndeton. It’s writer uses a really long sentence that doesn’t use commas or punctuation and goes on and on and on.  Just like a teen when they are excited, upset, or in full stream-of-consciousness mode. This device, along with asyndeton, or replacing all the conjunctions with commas and letting the sentence ride on.

Avoid using cliched and hot vernacular

Many expressions have the shelf life of unrefrigerated yogurt on a hot summer afternoon. You could taste it, use it, but it’s risky.

Many cool and catchy expressions have also changed their meaning over time.  It is better to use plain English to get across ideas.  Sometimes a simple “cool” will do. Tic Tok might make certain expressions and trends not stop, but those trends will burn out before you finish your first draft.

Keep your work relevant and don’t use trendy expressions.

Technology

Nothing can date a piece of writing quicker than using the latest technology of the day. Keep technology vague or chose to write in an era that doesn’t have as much quick changing tech are a couple ways to handle this.

Anyone remember a nano? That super cool new I-pod? Flip phones or Blackberries?  All the coolest things in their day.  We hope our novels will last longer than the time those must-have items stole the spotlight.

Are your characters deep and observant? 

Add dimensions. Teens feel things deeply and often see things adults have forgotten to appreciate.

A wonderful example of complex and deep thinking characters in YA is The Perks of Being a Wallflower. In this look at American teenaged life, Stephan Chbosky’s main character Charlie starts his high school career alone and depressed and finds companionship with a group of seniors dealing with their own dark pasts. He also connects with his English teacher who gives him multiple books to read. 

The topics covered in this novel are timely and sensitive, trigger warning worthy, as ‘well-adjusted kids’ work through the issues of abusive boyfriends, mental health problems, suicide, sexuality, homophobia, divorce, drug use, child abuse and how to have real conversations around these topics.

Keeping it Real.

Do teens in your novel have the same constraints as actual adolescents? Teens all have high learning curves in life. Be sure in your story that your teen characters have layers of appropriate challenges and concerns that teens would face. Be certain that they don’t know everything (although they can think they do.)

An example of appropriate learning curves for teens is their first time operating a vehicle. Learning to tackle transportation, subway or first car ride, horse and buggy or spaceship could cause similar hangups, problems, and complex feelings in your main character.  Remember your first brush with freedom that driving or riding a bike gave you?  That is the stuff that makes YA shine.

Firsts

First love, first independence, first disappointment, first brush with mortality. Choose a theme around one of these and your story will be much stronger than if it is just an adult story with a precocious young person acting like an adult.

Get to know many teens.

One of the best ways to tackle the voice of a teen is to spend time with young adults.  Try one of these ideas and connect with a young person.

• Volunteer at your library of school.
• Do a book talk. 
• Join an organization that supports ecology or the humane society. 
• Befriend a young person or become a writing mentor.
• Support a writing contest.

Developing a better understanding of issues unique to teen life today can round out your story telling from a teen perspective as well.

Final Thoughts

What makes YA fiction a go-to for you? What was one of the first books that really meant something to you? Let us know in the comments below.

About Kris

Kris Maze is an author, writing coach, and teacher. She has worked in education for many years and writes for various publications, including Practical Advice for Teachers of Heritage Learners of Spanish and the award-winning blog Writers in the Storm where she is also a host. You can find her horror stories and young adult writing on her website. Keep up with future projects and events by subscribing to her newsletter. And other writing work HERE.

A recovering grammarian and hopeless wanderer, Kris enjoys reading, playing violin and piano, and spending time outdoors.

And occasionally, she photographs flowers.