Shadows In My Past

One of the best parts of reading is when a plotline pays off, and you go back to re-read previous stories to find those little nuggets of foreshadowing that told you this was coming.  Whether it’s Voldemort taking Harry’s blood(allowing Harry to survive the killing curse), or how the interaction between the Tugar and the Merki hordes in Rally Cry foretold of future wars with various sects of the alien hordes, finding the snippets of what you’ve previously read coming to fruition in current stories is what makes reading so satisfying.  However, as I’ve written more and more myself, I’ve found myself wondering how much of the foreshadowing in books is intentional, and how much is after-the-fact retconning.

There are times I know exactly where a book or book series is going.  I intentionally plant small lines in some passages that the sharp reader can extrapolate into greater knowledge of what’s to come.  That said, I’m not always as creative or prophetic as I might like, so I’ll use previous work as an entry point into a new plot and act like I was always going to do that.  It makes me look clever, and the reader is none the wiser.

When you find those little nuggets of foreshadowing and slap yourself in the forehead, exclaiming, “Why didn’t I see that coming?”, just know that the writer didn’t always see it coming.  Sometimes the idea forms afterward and it was merely a useful blurb that he or she figured out how to play later.