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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/35619
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Here is the latest version of [this question](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/34224/how-do-i-get-my-readers-through-the-early-hardship-part-of-my-fiction), except that I believe that I have identified a key issue. Someone who read Chapters 1-3 of one of my novels (and then stopped), asked me, "why is there a deluge of seemingly unrelated issues." The answer was that I was "foreshadowing." Everything I put into Chapters 1-3 had echoes in the later chapters.

Apparently, I put my readers through "boot camp" in the first third of my works. In my military historical novel, that is literally the case; I take my readers through the soldiers' drills to show how they shoot and march faster than the enemy. The second two thirds is fun, because the soldiers win victory after victory, and the book reads more smoothly because I don't have to explain everything each time.

How can I make this "foreshadowing" more attractive in the early going? For instance, is there such a thing as "foreshadowing of foreshadowing?"

Original score: 10