Young Writers Society

So I'm currently writing the first book in a trilogy of fantasy novels, and I have MANY plot twists. Big reveals, deaths of characters, the outcome of a battle. And for some of them at least, I like to leave things in the chapters that are little hints about the reveal. A snippet of conversation the MC shouldn't hear, a character nervous about something they shouldn't worry about. Except...I don't want to make them too obvious, or the readers will easily guess what's going to happen. I want it to be something they read, don't think much of, then when they find the big reveal and go back to the other chapters, they'll see the hints again and realize what they were. Any suggestions on how to do this?

What you're describing here is known as foreshadowing, and is a very difficult literary technique to pull off. However, I do have some tips:

1- Give the foreshadowing hints another purpose than being foreshadowing hints. Slip them in for other reasons. Something is relevant to the plot now, serves its function... and comes back as a massive clue later on.

2- Give more than just foreshadowing details when you do show the foreshadowing. There is nothing quite so obvious as getting an extra special description of a certain object/person, and nothing else gets that treatment. Make other items that special. Mix in the critical detail in the middle of the description instead of at the beginning or end.

3- Don't make the item special in the first place. Make it something that the character newly encounters in a different setting, or make it part of the background so you only introduce it once. Then stick it into obscurity. If the character passes by it every day, they won't notice it every time they pass. So don't mention it every time they pass. If they use it every day, a casual mention of them using it is all you need. You can even stop that eventually, once routine is established.

4- Don't plan on putting in those twists. I am completely serious. The best, most surprising twists come from not actually predicting when they'll happen. The plot will grow and change as you write it, which means new opportunities for surprises come up all the time. Use them. Deviate from your plot. Keep some of the original foreshadowing in there, too, because it was going to happen that way at the time. It's more confusing for the reader that way.

5- Remember the goal is to mess with the reader, not show off how awesome and epic your own plot is. Foreshadowing done for pure cleverness tends not to be as good. Foreshadowing done to have readers puzzle over what in the world just happened is often a lot better.

6- Avoid the use of "suddenly" for introducing actions. Nothing kills a tense mood more than that word.

7- Read these two articles.

8- Read. Everything you can get your hands on. Read good books, read bad books. See what events they foreshadowed, how they foreshadowed it, and how many reads it took for you to notice the foreshadowing. Look at plots critically. Learn what are common ways to introduce twists, what those common twists are. See what's been done, overdone, and underdone. What you never see but think would be cool. Take something overdone and figure out how to make it new. Take something hardly done at all and figure out why it ever is.

One good idea is to read the Series of Unfortunate Events series. Lemony Snicket is a good writer. I mean, when you read the last book after you read them all(guilty as charged), and you find out that their dad is still alive is freaking awesome! (I just wish that I could find out who he is.)
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Oops.

One cool way of making it seem not so obvious is to make other characters lie. I mean, everybody lies! But, you don't expect to see a lie when you read dialogue. So, it can be pretty cool, if you execute it just right.