Foreshadowing can be accomplished by the use of story-driven or fictional events which can bring original dialogue, emotional investment in the plot, such as for the main character, unknown and present characters.
A flashback is the interruption of a sequential narrative plot to present important events that have happened in the past to present plot points that are difficult to bring into the narrative, such as character traits, events, or themes which may drive the current narrative or to be revealed.
Flashforwards move the plot forward in time where formerly revealed or new character traits, events or themes are brought into the story. They might embellish past or current plot points.56
Chekhov's gun, a principle where an object or character is shown numerous times, referring to that same object will be used that is important to the narrative. A red herring may also be played here.7
Foreshadowing is often confused with other literary devices.
A red herring is a hint designed to mislead the audience. Foreshadowing only hints at a possible outcome within the confinement of a narrative and leads readers in the right direction.
A flashforward is a scene that takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television, or other media.89 Foreshadowing is sometimes employed through characters' explicitly predicting the future.10 Flashforwards have scenes shown out of chronological order in a nonlinear narrative, with chronology in an anachronist order, such as to make the reader or the audience think about the climax or reveals.
Chekhov's gun dictates that everything superfluous must be deleted. In relation to foreshadowing, the literary critic Gary Morson describes its opposite, sideshadowing.11 Found notably in the epic novels of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, sideshadowing is the practice of including scenes that turn out to have no relevance to the plot. That, according to Morson, increases the verisimilitude of the fiction because the audience knows that in real life, unlike in novels, most events are in fact inconsequential. The "sense of structurelessness" invites the audience to "interpret and question the events that actually do come to pass."12
Ginsburg, Michal Peled (1997). Prince, Gerald; Reid, Ian; Duyfhuizen, Bernard (eds.). "Framing Narrative". Poetics Today. 18 (4): 571–588. doi:10.2307/1773187. ISSN 0333-5372. JSTOR 1773187. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1773187 ↩
"What is Foreshadowing? || Oregon State Guide to Literary Terms". College of Liberal Arts. 2019-10-08. Retrieved 2021-06-30. https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/what-foreshadowing ↩
"Foreshadowing". Literarydevices.net. Retrieved December 8, 2017. https://literarydevices.net/foreshadowing/ ↩
"Foreshadowing". www.literarytechniques.org. Retrieved 20 June 2019. https://literarytechniques.org/foreshadowing/ ↩
Shorey, Paul (1933-07-01). "Foreshadowing and Suspense in the Epics of Homer, Apollonius, and Vergil. George Eckel Duckworth". Classical Philology. 28 (3): 245–246. doi:10.1086/361639. ISSN 0009-837X. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/361639 ↩
"Glossary of the Gothic: Foreshadowing | Glossary of the Gothic | Marquette University". epublications.marquette.edu. Retrieved 2021-06-30. https://epublications.marquette.edu/gothic_foreshadowing/ ↩
"What is Chekhov's Gun? A Guide To Chekhov's Gun and the Power of Foreshadowing | Literature & Latte". www.literatureandlatte.com. Retrieved April 28, 2024. https://www.literatureandlatte.com/blog/chekhovs-gun-and-the-power-of-foreshadowing#:~:text=%22Chekhov's%20gun%22%20is%20one%20of,one%20it%20should%20be%20fired ↩
Ulrike Spierling; Nicolas Szilas (3 December 2008). Interactive Storytelling: First Joint International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, ICIDS 2008 Erfurt, Germany, November 26-29, 2008, Proceedings. Springer. p. 156. ISBN 978-3-540-89424-7. 978-3-540-89424-7 ↩
flash-forward - definition of flash-forward by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia http://www.thefreedictionary.com/flash-forward ↩
Philip Martin, The Writer's Guide to Fantasy Literature: From Dragon's Lair to Hero's Quest, p 146, ISBN 0-87116-195-8 /wiki/ISBN_(identifier) ↩
Morson, Gary Saul (Autumn 1998). "Sideshadowing and Tempics". New Literary History. 29 (4): 599–624. doi:10.1353/nlh.1998.0043. JSTOR 20057502. S2CID 145159406. /wiki/Doi_(identifier) ↩
Calixto, Joshua (3 August 2015). "LET'S TALK ABOUT ROSA VAR ATTRE, THE IMPOSSIBLE ROMANCE OF THE WITCHER 3". Kill Screen. Retrieved 3 August 2015. http://killscreendaily.com/articles/lets-talk-about-rosa-var-attre-impossible-romance-witcher-3/ ↩