Day 17
15 mins planning + 1 hr planned writing
The topic today is how signposting (non-fiction) and foreshadowing (fiction) can pull the reader’s attention in. Jacqui explains that foreshadowing is “the art of the well-placed intriguing comment”, such as ” . . . but little did I know then, how much I was to lose / gain / eat / sleep / rinse / repeat.”
I agree, but I would go further than this. For me, foreshadowing can be built into nearly everything: visuals, mannerisms, speech, patterns of behaviour. The story world is not a neutral place; it is one lensed through a narrator’s present or past experience.
I know that Jacqui is talking more about page-turning phrases, and express statements of future reveals, but in addition to this, I aim to build in a subconscious sense, a tendency towards certain outcomes, which will come as reveals but also feel natural and inevitable.
A phrase struck me today: “The reader needs to know, at all times, why he or she should continue reading.”
I love this. Jacqui is using it in context of non-fiction informative writing, but it went to the core of my fiction aims. I want to keep the reader invested, be that for plot or personal reasons. It reminds me to keep story strands sorted, mysteries alive, characters moving.
Tip of the day for those of you who like to discover the story as you write: create a signpost for something you don’t know how to answer yet; a mystery you don’t know how to solve. It will keep you writing, guessing, building those story bridges.
Exercise
- Plan the scene with some “foreshadowing” in mind.
- 1,500 words if possible (I added 15 minutes planning): free-write but with a plot signpost in mind.
My response
- It’s been simple work recently: lesson, planning, writing. Not much journalling or additional exercise, which I’m glad about time-wise. Although it is starting to feel like a slog to keep putting out content for a project I haven’t planned and don’t know the direction of. Obviously this is the challenge that I am taking on, and I have already derived benefit from it. It’s just that right now my work feels a bit . . . directionless.
- Perhaps because of the above, writing 1,500 words felt hard today. I felt I had nothing to say. I suppose it was One Of Those Days.
- Nevertheless! We persist!
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