Hi,
Some feedback to my flash that went live at Every Day Fiction today suggested I should have used foreshadowing... which baffled me, especially as (I googled it) it seems to mean hinting at what is going to happen before it does... thus undermining all of my writerly efforts to _prevent_ people knowing what is going to happen before it does, and thus building some interest, surprise and the possibility of a twist into it all.

So...

I have four questions:

1. Why on Earth would anybody want to do such a terrible, terrible thing as it seems to simply destroy the whole story?

2. Have I got the meaning of foreshadowing hopelessly and utterly wrong?

3. How would you define foreshadowing?

4. Any good examples of it being done well?

G

This is a good explanation:

http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2009/11/foreshadowing-vs-telegraphing.html

I read the flash Gaius (excellent by the way) and honestly I don't know where you'd even fit a foreshadow, the whole thing is so tightly written. I'd say ignore. The whole story hangs on not knowing or trying to know until the end. To give any clues, however nebulous, would detract from that. Besides is not foreshadowing better used in longer fiction? It strikes me as something that would only work well in a longer piece as short pieces, such as yours, are often too self-contained to require such devices.

But that's a meaningless term to describe a natural consequence of knowing your characters and plot!

To me, based on that, foreshadowing is simply writing the way your character thinks while the other thing is crass and contrived.

In any case, again, based on that link, I did so in my flash as proven by the fact nobody noticed...

G

<Added>

PS Crossed with you, Ren, thanks for reading! Still unclear whether it is an actual phenomenon though.

I'll go to my tried and true trusted author Samuel Delany for the proof. Read The Fall of The Towers to observe a master throwing small foreshadows of the greater story at you. I only caught some of them on the second and third readings. I'm not going to give them away because it'll ruin the story to outline the significance of them. One of them involves a small pet with multicoloured eyes though.

Besides is not foreshadowing better used in longer fiction?

That is my understanding too. Flash fiction is a different animal.
There's a good example in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but I can't remember exactly what it was off hand.

The crudest kind of foreshadowing is 'Little did she know that it would be her last day on earth.'

I wouldn't, myself, call it foreshadowing if all it is, is you putting a spooky stranger on the street corner ten pages before he actually knifes someone. I'd just say that's you doing your reverse-Chekovian duty of making sure that if a gun gets fired in Act 3, you put it on the wall in Act 1. But some people probably do think of that as foreshadowing. Maybe it depends on a) the degree of explicit but unexplained spookiness (or whatever) you build in, and b) how experienced and above all knowing the reader is.and experience of the reader: the more knowing the reader, the less explict-but-unexplained the spookiness needs to be, for them to think 'aye-eye [how do you spell that?] chook! Summat's oop!'

I think it can work IF it's the kind of story where you have a strong sense of the storyteller and their voice - either a character or not - throughout the telling of the story. Because of course the storyteller knows what happened:

'Well, if I'd known it was going to be a disaster, I'd have got out fast, but of course I didn't. Everything was lined up right, I just had to press the button, or so I thought. But I hadn't bargained for Alice Lavelle's Westie having scented a bitch Dalmatian on heat in the next dressing room...'

But it's one to use cautiously and you're right, it's more often the result of the writer thinking, 'I'm now going to write the worst day of her life,' and then writing that - telling - and only then getting on with the showing...

Emma

Gaius, don't worry too much about it.

I thought your piece was very good and didn't guess what was coming until the end, but if you'd given any hint, I think it would have ruined the story or at the least made it fall rather flat.

I've just read it - I think there's truth in the comments that say you don't need so much about the agnostic/ignostic thing, because it detracts from the overall drive of the story, but I don't think you need more foreshadowing.

<Added>

Re. foreshadowing in general - a great example is 'All Quiet on the Orient Express' which is basically all foreshadowing with no actual event, and works brilliantly. Also, the first few chapters of 'Les Miserables'.
You can imply that something is going to happen without saying exactly what is going to happen, or even what kind of thing is going to happen. However, I think you do that anyway, because the way you describe Alexei is in itself somehow ominous - he is incongruous, and so we expect something to happen - will God strike him down, will the congregation turn on him, etc.

I just loved how you slipped in 'and his assailant' at the end. Blink and you'd miss it. Brilliant.

I've just read it too - I agree with Leila on both points - the ignostic bit felt overdone, but the story was fabulous and definitely doesn't need foreshadowing: it's the shock factor which makes it.
Susiex

Can I have the link to it?

<Added>

Oh, duh! Sorry, ignore.

(Jem: Link at the top of the page or also http://www.everydayfiction.com/alexei-by-gaius-coffey/ )

However, I think you do that anyway

Well, yes, his thoughts on the value of religion, for example (though I admit the a/ignostic is a bit to cerebral to be enjoyable). Which brings me back to the question of whether foreshadowing actually exists as a phenomenon and, if does, whether there is actually a distinctino between that and telegraphing?

Now that I think about it, I have come across an example that might be thought of as foreshadowing in a play once (opening scene, standing by a lake, Death meets the main character "it is sunset?" "No, it is sunrise?" "Ah, then I fear I may be too previous"). Yet, although it was an absolutely brilliant line, surely that lacks all subtlety and could just as easily be termed telegraphing as the playwrite was not only implying but asserting that at least one character would shuffle off their respective mortal coil before the end.

It occurs to me, that the foreshadowing described in Naomi's link is nothing more than:

doing your reverse-Chekovian duty of making sure that if a gun gets fired in Act 3, you put it on the wall in Act 1

In other words, all of the bits that might be considered subtle enough to be termed foreshadowing rather than telegraphing are quite simply being true to your character - writing properly. To actively strive to point out something before it happens would seem to be, for the majority of cases and the vast majority of writers, actively destructive to the story as it will actively reduce the tension. Certainly, for any story that has a twist, whatever about the fun you could have with foreshadowing (or even wilfully telegraphing) red-herrings, to foreshadow the actual twist would seem to be utterly self-defeating.

Mind you, even if only because of the juxtaposition of a story about nothing called "All Quiet On The Western Front", I'm going to do some more digging on this one. (Ren, my bookshop looked blankly back at me when I suggested the Delany book and couldn't find it on their book search computer thingy either.)

G

<Added>

Oh, duh! Sorry, ignore.

Indeed, and don't read this sentence.

A masterful example of 'Chekov's guns' is Philip Pullman's opening chapter in Northern Lights (The Golden Compass) where he lays it out, literally - the dust, the severed boy, the head, the city, etc - but explains none of it, forcing the reader to read on to discover what it all means.