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IWW Practice-W Exercise Archives
Exercise: Foreshadowing  (Version 2)



These exercises were written by IWW members and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its members. You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that you found them at the Internet Writers Workshop (http://www.internetwritingworkshop.org/).

Prepared by Patricia Johnson
Posted on 27 May 2001
Reposted, revised on 29 March 2009
Reposted on 20 March 2011
Reposted on 21 April 2013
Reposted on 16 October 2016
Reposted on 2 February 2019
Reposted on 2 February 2020
Reposted on 29 January 2023

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Exercise: In 400 words or less, write a story that uses foreshadowing as a
plot device to hint that something is going to happen, then fulfill that hint
by the end of the story.

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Foreshadowing is a tool we can use to build interest and suspense, plant a
seed in the reader's mind, provide a clue that will keep thereader turning
the pages. Foreshadowing can be presented in dialogue, action, or
description. It could be an omen or prophecy--a mirrorbreaking on the first
page could presage bad luck, a prediction of a bad end for someone could
come true. Foreshadowing might be one small detail or action, or a larger
event, as long as it echoes through the plot or a character's development and
fulfills itself.

Want to know more about this literary device? In his satiric essay on
writing in the journal The Onion, John Grisham gives some good basic
advice on foreshadowing.  Follow this link to learn and laugh.

http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/now_that_ive_learned_about.

So, construct a story of 400 words or less that makes use of foreshadowing
to advance the plot or develop a character, or both. Be sure that the
foreshadowing comes early in the story and is seen to resolve itself in the
end.

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In critiquing, point out the foreshadowing, tell us whether it was easy to see
and whether its promise or threat was carried out. Did the writer use the
device skillfully? Was it obvious or was it subtle?


Web site created by Rhéal Nadeau and the administrators of the Internet Writing Workshop.
Modified by Gayle Surrette.