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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/12190
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/12190
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I think you're confusing "foreshadowing" with "prophesizing." Foreshadow is derived literally from "before" + "shadow" — the shadow of an event falls before the event itself. The "shadow" means the reader can see something coming before it happens. (Imagine a very tall tree falling. The shadow of the tree reaches the ground before the tree does. You can see that the tree is going to hit the ground somewhere because you can see where its shadow is.)

The idea is that the _reader_ can predict "Gosh, there's a big red button on that console with a 'Don't Touch' sign on it. Oh look, some nameless sod just touched it and he's being dragged off to be executed. Hmm, the heroine and her plucky comic relief sidekick just entered the room. _I bet the sidekick is going to touch the big red button, will be sentenced to death, and will have to be rescued._"

The foreshadowing is "the nameless sod just touched it and he's being dragged off to be executed." Usually an event like that is put into a story for a later payoff: someone _else_ touches the button, some _other_ random event occurs and the person is executed (thus showing the depravity of the leader), et cetera.

The characters are not predicting events by supernatural means. Foreshadowing happens between the author and the audience.

Original score: 15