An Introduction to Foreshadowing

One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn’t going to go off. It’s wrong to make promises you don’t mean to keep. —Chekov

A story isn’t a bunch of unrelated events. Every detail in your story matters. Every promise you make to your reader must be kept. Chekov’s gun is the prime example of this told throughout the writing industry.

How do authors do this? Through foreshadowing. But what is foreshadowing?

Foreshadowing is your story’s way of dropping hints about what’s coming without giving everything away. In this lesson, we will define foreshadowing, show you foreshadowing techniques, how it helps build suspense, and why the three P’s (plant, patience, and payoff) are so important for making that plot twist satisfying.

Throughout this lesson, we’ll give examples from popular literature and film, so that you can apply the principles to real-world examples. Due to the nature of foreshadowing, this means that there might be spoilers if you’ve not seen/read that particular tale.

What Foreshadowing IS

Here’s an example: early in your story, a character admits they never learned to swim while declining a pool party invitation. Later, when their only escape route involves crossing a river, that inability becomes a deadly limitation. Foreshadowing isn’t just mentioning random details, and nor are they red herrings (information meant to put the reader off-track). Foreshadowing is planting information that will matter later. A red umbrella mentioned once is just a prop. That red umbrella repeatedly noted, associated with danger, and later found at the scene of an ‘accident’ (The Killing Kind)? Now that’s foreshadowing.

When done well, foreshadowing rewards readers by letting them later connect the dots. They pick up on clues without realizing it, so when the big moment hits, they think “Of course, it all makes sense!” instead of “Wait, where did that come from?”.

Example: The Sixth Sense

Example: The Great Gatsby

What Foreshadowing DOES

Good foreshadowing helps guide your readers without them realizing it. Their subconscious picks up patterns while their conscious mind stays focused on the action. Foreshadowing is effective because:

• It cranks up the tension. Think of a ticking time bomb—once you tell readers the bomb explodes at midnight, every scene leads up to that moment. They start checking timestamps/page counts, calculating remaining time, feeling their pulse quicken as the deadline approaches. Without that setup, midnight is just another hour.
• It makes surprises feel earned. When the mild-mannered accountant turns out to be the killer, readers shouldn’t think “Where did that come from?” They should think “Of course—those calculator calluses, the way they counted steps, how they flinched at mentions of audit trails.”
• It rewards re-readers. Your story operates on multiple levels. That argument about dinner plans? Now it reads as a power struggle. The broken fence mentioned in passing? That’s how the killer got in. Readers love discovering layers they missed the first time.
• Most importantly, it builds trust. When readers realize you’ve been guiding them all along, they relax into your storytelling. They know you won’t pull cheap tricks or introduce convenient last-minute solutions. Every payoff proves you know what you’re doing.

Example: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Example: Jaws

Levels of Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing isn’t one-size-fits-all. It ranges from almost unnoticeable to being written in all caps, and knowing where to land on that spectrum makes all the difference in the final payoff.

1. Invisible. Hidden in plain sight. Readers won’t spot this indirect foreshadowing until the payoff makes them smack their foreheads. In The Sixth Sense, the color red appears whenever the supernatural world touches reality. Most people never notice consciously, until they rewatch and see it everywhere.
2. Subtle. Registers in readers’ subconscious. They sense something matters without knowing why. In Breaking Bad, Walt’s coughing fits in early episodes seem like minor character details. The fits barely register as viewers focus on his meth-cooking adventures. Only later do we realize they were quietly establishing the lung cancer that drives his entire transformation.
3. Obvious. Makes readers sit up and take notice. They know something’s significant, just not what. When the direwolf pups show up in Game of Thrones—one for each Stark child, plus an albino for Jon—readers immediately think “this means something big”.
4. Heavy-handed. Practically announces itself. In Star Wars, “I have a bad feeling about this” becomes a running gag that signals trouble ahead. It’s obvious, but it works—especially when played for laughs or to establish clear danger.
5. Sledgehammer. Abandons all subtlety. Horror movies love this approach. In Scream, characters literally discuss horror movie rules: “Never say ‘I’ll be right back’” and “The killer always comes back for one last scare”. The obviousness becomes part of the fun.

Which level should you choose? It depends on your story’s needs. Mystery readers want subtle clues to piece together themselves. Childrens’ books need clearer signposts. Comedy often plays with heavy-handed foreshadowing for laughs. Likewise, you can utilize multiple types of foreshadowing at different points in your story. There’s no universal right answer—just what works for your specific story and audience.

How to add foreshadowing into your writing

But how can we put this into action? Every piece of foreshadowing follows the same three-beat rhythm: Plant, Patience, Payoff.

Plant (the setup)

Drop your hint. The best plants pull double duty—they matter right now AND set up something later. When your detective notices the suspect’s expensive shoes, it reveals character in the moment and explains how they could afford that bribe later.

Forced hints stick out like a sore thumb, so make sure they feel organic. If your character needs perfect recall later, have them casually remember exactly what someone wore three weeks ago without making a big deal of it, rather than having a teacher praise them for that exact trait.

Patience (tending to your foreshadowing)

As with life, this is the hardest aspect to balance, as it makes or breaks the foreshadowing. If you foreshadow too late, then it feels obvious—like mentioning a peanut allergy right before the peanut butter scene. But, if you wait too long, the readers might forget about it entirely!

Foreshadowing is like tending a garden—you can’t just plant seeds and walk away. You need to water them occasionally. Drop subtle reminders throughout your story to keep important details alive in readers’ minds. Maybe your character mentions their fear of heights again when declining to help hang lights outside the house, or avoids the balcony at a party while everyone else watches the fireworks. These gentle reinforcements keep the foreshadowing fresh without beating readers over the head.

Big revelations need space to breathe, usually several chapters, to make sure the later payoff really hits. In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy’s geology hobby gets mentioned early but doesn’t pay off until much later when we discover he’s been using that rock knowledge to dig his escape tunnel.

Payoff (reveal the twist)

Your revelation should match the setup. A tiny chemistry mention shouldn’t suddenly make someone a meth-cooking genius. But if you keep mentioning grandpa’s pocket watch, that watch had better be important.

The best payoffs don’t just cash in the setup—they transform it. Think of The Sixth Sense—all those scenes where Malcolm seems ignored suddenly make perfect sense when we learn he’s dead. Readers think “Oh, THAT’S what that meant!” instead of “Well, that was convenient”.

The Magic

As writers, we foreshadow without even realizing it. Every time a detail is mentioned that becomes important later, that’s foreshadowing. We build towards a climax because, as humans, we crave novelty… But also need structure. Foreshadowing acts as a structural support for that novelty, bookending our story. When you recognize what you’re doing and start doing it intentionally, that’s when the magic happens.

Foreshadowing transforms simple events into important conclusions and surprises into satisfying revelations. It keeps the promise every writer makes: That every word matters and every detail earns its place.

Let that gun go off.