Young Writers Society

Hey guys !

I am completly new on this website, so sorry if I am asking something thats been answered before!

Anyway, I wanted to know if any of you guys know a good book or some great tips on this. I think we have all tried it, we read a book and it turns out that a small detail which we don't at first consider important turns out to have a crucial role for the story. A good example I suppose is J.K Rowling's trick with Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape and Dumbledores death (genius twist btw!). It is as if the author somehow hides a very crucial detail in the book and that what I would like to get some tips on (or a good book)

THanks in advance !

By happenstance would you perhaps be reffering to a wondrous little technique author's like to call....foreshadowing?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreshadowing

Now as to how they pull it off...I have no clue. It takes a certain amount of mastery, both to writing itself and of your plot, to pull off really good, edge-of-your seat foreshadowing. But I'll work on it and get some tips in general back to you.

ED's correct when he says you're talking about foreshadowing. Some things I've picked up for how to do it smoothly:

Hide it away. The less you want people to notice the details, the less you should draw attention to it. If you've never described anybody's looks, and all of a sudden one guy is described in detail, we know something is going to happen with and/or to that guy (romance novels give away the perfect match by doing this very often).

For added insurance, give clues another purpose so readers can't easily assume "this will be the key to solving everything later." Instead, have them assume it's just something in the worldbuilding and has other uses. But, please, don't constantly draw attention to it. If it's only a part of the background of a character's daily life, treat it as part of the background. This tip really goes well with the first one, because if there's only one heirloom ever mentioned, of course readers will know that heirloom has some sort of purpose to the grand plot.

Introduce the clues early enough the plot relating to them hasn't had a chance to come up yet. People don't even know to look for foreshadowing when plot hasn't kicked into high gear. Then, "suddenly", all this stuff becomes important in the main plot. I put "suddenly" in quotes because it's not truly sudden; it simply looks that way.

Unpredictable plots in general are covered in these two articles.

To get better at foreshadowing, study books. Reread them. Good foreshadowing is often undetectable until you've read the book at least once (great foreshadowing can take more than that). Reread and start picking up on every single clue you can think of and when it was introduced. What other information was presented at the time the item/information was introduced? How many times did you see the information/item come up in the rest of the book/series? How was the piece of information treated? Was it given any importance by the characters? Those questions can help you figure out when and how foreshadowing works.

And, if all else fails, leave clues left and right but keep the plot unpredictable enough that readers have no idea what it means so they have to keep going.

Hope this helps.

I do a lot of foreshadowing in my books. Probably shouldn't have said that because if you ever read them then now you'll be expecting it! Ha! I love using it because I think it really brings enjoyment to the reader when they can read it back after realising the foreshadowing and go "ahhhh I see how that all ties up!"

I just think it adds a whole new level to the story, I love it! Foreshadowing rules!