Home
 
Previous | Memories | Tell a Friend | Next
 
olga
o_yannik
03 April 2008 @ 09:13 am
about Forshadowing  

In yesterday’s [info]novel_in_90  word-count post [info]mnfaure  quoted   T.S. Eliot: "In my beginning is my end", and she asked if we try to foreshadow important elements of our ending in our story's opening?
Having thought about it in the hot bath I figured I actually do.

To start off on a funny note, in the first paragraph I said that Cornelius had a clear vision of his future life, which is a pretty obvious forshadowing. Of course Cornelius’s vision will not be realized, instead something completely different will happen. But then, if the UNEXPECTED didn’t happen to our good characters, what would those books be about?

 

Another thing is not forshadowing exactly, but it’s the mention of the main theme of the story – independence. From other people, from the position we have in world, and the independence of the nation(s). The word “independent” is the 490th word of the novel.

The background to this story will be American Revolution, sometimes referred to as the War of Independence. The story starts in England on the 4th of July, when the Declaration of Independence was signed on the other side of the Ocean. The characters don’t know about it yet, but if that isn’t a forshadowing, then what is? The will be a lot of discussion between the aristocrats Cornelius is going to encounter in this first chapter, about the political situation in the Thirteen Colonies. And little he knows that he will be involved in that conflict in less than a half a year.

There are other threads of the story that are not being forshadowed, as well. But I’m not going to disclose them now.


There are often good questions asked in those word-count posts, and I remember I wanted to answer to a few of the previous round question in the light of this book. I think I’m going to do that, if time permits.

 .

 

Tags: ,
 
2 comments | Leave a comment
 
( Post a new comment )
silwyna: Pegasus[info]silwyna on April 3rd, 2008 12:06 pm (UTC)
Very interesting point. I think foreshadowing certain parts of a story makes the book even more interesting. The reader knows more then the character, so when the character tries to plan his future and looks forward to certain things, the reader already knows that it will all come very differently. And that makes reading the book even more fun.

Is this the book you are working on next, Yannik? After having finished the first draft for the other one? It sounds very, very promising and it's definitely a story that I'll be interested in to read :)
ammonite7[info]ammonite7 on April 3rd, 2008 06:16 pm (UTC)
In the class I just finished, by Will Gray, he considered any author worth their salt should know how to handle foreshadowing well. I think it goes hand-in-hand with those hints and teases the author gives readers about solutions to questions that have been set up. I know, as a reader myself, it's gratifying when you can say, "I knew it, I knew it," or "I would never have guessed that, but now I see where it came from," or something similar. Near the end when all those blocks begin to line up.