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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/35667
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/35667
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

+1 Cloudchaser, I'd go further and say foreshadowing should NEVER be close to the event. But it doesn't have to be on page 1, or page 50.

As I said in my [answer to your previous foreshadowing question](https://writing.stackexchange.com/a/35628/26047) if you have THIS MUCH foreshadowing you probably have too much of it.

Foreshadowing should be a _scene_ or _incident_ that the reader is likely to remember, but it must fit into the narrative where it appears so the reader does not **notice** it is foreshadowing.

Perhaps we have a miscommunication in terminology:

### Foreshadowing is NOT just information the reader needs.

Foreshadowing is a taste of something that is to come; it is a mini-version of a scene that will happen later, often only _similar_ to what happens later. Much as a shadow can reveal a person is present but does not reveal the full image of the person and their nature; it reveals a distorted but later recognizable shape of the person. Foreshadowing shows the reader the **_shape_** of what is to come, not **_precisely_** what is to come.

An actual quote IRL, using it correctly:

> "By comparison, he said, and as the students would later read in class, a major Moscow media outlet was raided right after Vladimir Putin became president, **foreshadowing** the government’s control of Russian media."  
> _Washington Post, Mar 18, 2018_

I.E. a mini-version: The raid on one media outlet **heralds** Putin's subjugation of all media outlets; the illegal raid heralds the future illegalities of assassination, murder, blackmail and corruption and election fixing; the single dictatorial act heralds many dictatorial acts throughout Russian society.

You are not "foreshadowing" to inform the reader:

- that magic is possible in a world, or 

- that a machine that accomplishes XYZ exists, or 

- that homosexuality is widely accepted in your fantasy world, or 

- that "Chicago" and "Los Angeles" are now the names of planets in different star systems founded after the destruction of Earth in 11238, or

- that your peasants practice good hygiene for disease prevention (as IRL some early cultures did, whether they understood germ theory or not).

That stuff is just information, and as always you should avoid info-dumping. If your _real_ problem is info-dumping, there are many tricks to avoid info-dumping and you can search our site for suggestions. Briefly,

Some information is not necessary because it has no consequences in the story or does not have any great influence on the plot or character emotions. When that crap is included it is world-builder's disease; basically showing off an invention that has no purpose but you think it's cool.

Some explanations are not necessary because the reader isn't going to question them; if your scifi Bond character has a nuclear powered belt buckle with a hidden laser that can cut through three feet of solid steel, maybe with all the other tech in your universe the reader doesn't care exactly how you fit a safe nuclear reactor in a cubic centimeter.

Some info can be conveyed in dialogue; some can be shown-not-told. I don't have to tell you Amy is homosexual if she wakes up next to her wife in the morning.

It is not "foreshadowing" to inform the reader machine X exists, even if you are doing that to avoid a Deus Ex when your hero is saved by machine X. That is still just **information.** The more implausible it is the more important it is to disclose it early. if it is not implausible at all, it can be used with impunity: I **worked three years** in a hospital and there are many machines there for which I do not know the purpose, but presume others do. They need no explanation. It will help your story if when it is time for that machine you use the authentic terminology, but it wouldn't have to be revealed early to the reader unless you are inventing it to levitate yourself out of some impossible corner you have painted yourself into.

Foreshadows cannot be frequent or they stop working. They are spice, they cannot overwhelm the reader. They must be **remembered** and the reader's capacity for remembering things is limited; they are not going to read your book twenty times and memorize every nuance; most readers do not read the same book twice. It works in **one pass** or it doesn't work at all, and that is how editors and publishers and reviewers will see it too.

**Information** about how the world works must necessarily be done throughout, and avoiding boring info-dumping is a difficult skill to learn. I suspect that is your real problem, a confusion of these two terms. The rules for them are similar, but they serve different purposes. Information conveyance is necessarily frequent, foreshadowing is necessarily sparse.

Original score: 5