What is foreshadowing and why is it important?
I think that the most important lesson I learned from my mentor, author Arline Chase, concerns foreshadowing. Here is the Random House Webster’s definition of foreshadow: to show or indicate beforehand. In other words, to provide some hint, clue, or indication of something that is going to happen. Why is foreshadowing important? I learned this lesson the hard way. In many of my first short stories–which I recommend as a medium to anyone testing the waters to see if they want to write fiction–I thought that I was being so crafty with my endings. I wrapped up the crime (or whatever) with a complicated summary that explained to the reader how all had come about. Arline hit me alongside the head with the following admonition: You can’t do that! You’ve got to play fair with the reader! It didn’t take me long to understand what she meant. If you’ll allow me, I will get to my point indirectly. When a reader completes a thriller (my personal genre favorite), he or she should come away with two
