Foreshadowing and setup aren’t quite the same thing, though they’re often talked about as if they were. The same thing happens with payoff and consequences. Each pair has a lot of things in common, and sometimes the same event or bit of information can act as both
Read more →Writing isn’t magic. You can’t just say “Presto! A rabbit!” and pull a rabbit out of a hat. (Well, you can, but nobody is likely to believe it.) No, if you’re going to pull a rabbit out of a hat, you have to start by sneaking the
Read more →“If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.” – Anton Chekhov, quoted in Shchukin’s Memoirs At
Read more →Foreshadowing is the subtle art of suggesting or hinting at developments in plot, characterization, or setting that will happen later in the story. It’s a promise to the reader that the gun on the mantelpiece will go off eventually, that the main character will be forced to
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