Dialogues can be an effective tool for foreshadowing. Characters have a distinct way of speaking depending on their biographical background. They have their sentiments and prejudices, and they could negotiate, persuade, and object. The way they speak not only reveals a hidden part of themselves, but foreshadowing can be used as a device in dialogue to indicate an impending event in the future.

Example 1: Two housewives are having tea. “Looks like Alfred is out with his buddies playing golf again. And you don’t mind if he spends more time with his buddies, don’t you?”

“No. Let him have a happy time, and I’ll have mine.”

“You better stop telling Mark to come over while your hubby’s away. You should come over to his place instead.”

“Speaking of Mark coming over, you better leave now.”

This is a conversation between two women that conveys a future event. This scene serves to push the story forward, and it foreshadows a future event. We are given the idea that Alfred is a cuckolded husband.

Example 2: A kleptomaniac janitor is warned that if he is caught again pilfering office supplies, he will get the boot. The accounting department has recently procured a new coffeemaker. Along with it were new supplies of coffee and brown sugar in little packets. The janitor, addicted to caffeine, fights the urge to pocket the sachets of coffee and sugar. He sweats profusely as he mops the floor. The smell of coffee from the mugs of the employees on a break makes him hyperventilate. He fights both his compulsion to steal and his addiction to coffee. He proceeds to mop carelessly.  He manages to finish his job and feels proud of conquering his demons.

This scene illustrates that the janitor can overcome his compulsions--stealing and addiction. Another purpose is to show that while he succeeded in controlling himself, he lost focus on doing his job and forgot to let the floor dry. Later on, it would be revealed that a pregnant employee slips from the floor and suffers a miscarriage. 

Think of foreshadowing as a link between the present and the future in your scenes. Foreshadowing provides solidity and continuity. One established scene suggests a connected scene related to what is previously happening. The reader will recall an event in the past as soon as they get into the future scene that was established previously by foreshadowing.

Foreshadowing is nothing new and, therefore, it must be used sparingly. It has become a trope in movies. Foreshadowing with the right timing can provide a startling revelation at the end. You may be familiar with “Chekhov’s Gun.” The playwright Anton Chekhov stated that if there is a gun on stage in the first act, then it absolutely must go off in the second or third act. If it’s not going to go off, it’s got no business being present.

It’s a metaphor that makes sense. Foreshadowing must effectively create an impression that the past and present are interacting and moving the plot along with a sense that something is and will be happening.