Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A How do I make "foreshadowing" more relevant in the early going?

Here is the latest version of this question, 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 ...

5 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Tom Au‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:38:43Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/35619
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Tom Au‭ · 2019-12-08T08:38:43Z (almost 5 years ago)
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?"

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-04-27T10:59:11Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 10