Foreshadowing is a literary device that creates suspense by giving readers hints about what will happen later in the story. To master this art, you need to consider examples from notable stories, noting how they use foreshadowing to advance their plot. In this article, we examine 7 techniques for using foreshadowing with examples of classic works of fiction.

1. Curious objects

Just as Anton Chekhov suggested, you can draw readers' attention to an object that becomes crucial later in your narrative. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J. K. Rowling directs readers' attention to Professor Quirrell’s turban and highlights Harry’s curiosity about it. Later, at the end of the story, they find out the turban disguises his possession by Lord Voldemort. (Rowling, 1997).

2. Curious words or phrases

This technique requires using a term that makes readers curious. The first installation of The Hunger Games opens thus, “When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim’s warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother. Of course, she did. This is the day of the reaping.” (Collins, 2008, p. 10). Here, readers know "the reaping" can cause a nightmare and is about to happen, so they keep reading to learn what it is and how it affects the story.

3. A prophecy

With this method, you use a prophecy to create suspense, as readers are curious to know how the foretold ending could occur. Remember the prophecies of three witches in William Shakespeare's Macbeth: “All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter! […] Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. Not so happy, yet much happier. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo! Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!” (Shakespeare, 1606). Here, readers know both Macbeth and Banquo's descendants will be kings, making them wonder how this will be fulfilled and propelling the entire plot of this narrative.

4. Dialogue

You can use your character's dialogue to forewarn later events or big reveals in your story. A good example is in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet when Romeo says, “My life were better ended by their hate, than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.” (Shakespeare, 1579). When he made this statement, these were just words of a passionate lover, but in the end, readers remember them when he ends his life after seeing that Juliet is no more.

5. Setting description

You can choose a setting for your story that mirrors what is about to happen to your main character. This is the case in Charles Dickens' Great Expectation: “So furious had been the gusts, that high buildings in town had had the lead stripped off their roofs; and in the country, trees had been torn up, and sails of windmills carried away; and gloomy accounts had come in from the coast, of shipwreck and death.” (Dickens, 1861, p. 444). Here, the description of the weather foreshadows the dark turn about to happen in Pip's life.

6. Similes and metaphors

The way a writer describes things can foretell events yet to occur. Especially how they use similes and metaphors to connect features with future events and create certain moods. Consider Charles Dickens' use of simile in David Copperfield. “I sat looking at Peggotty for some time, in a reverie on this suppositious case: whether, if she were employed to lose me like the boy in the fairy tale, I should be able to track my way home again by the buttons she would shed.” Here Dickens uses a simile to portend David being betrayed by his mother. 

7. Narrator's opening

This kind of foreshadowing occurs at the beginning of a story, giving crucial information but leaving out context and details. Consider the opening of Lauren Oliver’s Before I Fall: “They say that just before you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes, but that’s not how it happened for me.” (Oliver, 2010, p. 5). Here, readers know the narrator is dead, but Lauren's opening stirs their curiosity over how the demise occurred.