Foreshadowing in the Internet age

[Ken]

I'm a guest author at TitanCon in late September. One of the topics I've been asked to discuss is Foreshadowing in the Internet age. I thought it was an interesting topic and I'd love to hear what the UK Book Club members think about the question... and, of course, I'll steal the best answers so I can look smart at the convention!

Here's the set-up for the discussion...

Twenty years ago writers could include subtle hints and clues about the future direction of the story knowing that maybe one reader in a hundred would guess what would happen next. Now with the Internet, that one reader can share their ideas with everyone else and suddenly an authors’ brilliant twist becomes an obvious thing that everyone knew ages ago. Is it more of a challenge to foreshadow stories in the Internet age? How can you successfully keep the twists and turns hidden and surprising whilst avoiding being overly subtle and obscure or turning to 'deus ex machina'?

For anyone who, like me, didn't know exactly what deus ex machina means, I'll save you looking it up... it's Latin for "god from the machine" and it's the plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.

What do you think?

[Helen]

Ooh I HATE the deus ex machina plot device...no offence if it's one you employ :)

I think it's an interesting topic for discussion. As a reader I avoid discussing books online until I've finished them. I prefer working out twists and turns for myself (or trying to) than being influenced in my thinking by talking to others reading it. That's one thing I love about Goodreads - book discussion pages don't appear on your home page until you've completed that book.

As a writer myself, and one who's shared work online chapter by chapter and therefore seen reader reactions and guesses of what's to come, I have to confess I've not considered the fact that foreshadowing is made harder by the internet. I've really enjoyed reading reactions - and peoples guesses at what's to come - it's kept me fired up and enthusiastic about my writing. In fact I think it actually adds something to my writing experience.

Hope that helps. Please credit all quotes to Helen R. Stevens, self-proclaimed geek and future bestselling author :)
(Just kidding!!)

[Ken]

I HATE the deus ex machina plot device too... no offence taken! I once read a whodunit where I had (cleverly, I thought) ruled out all the suspects. It turned out that someone who we'd never met had dunit! That author went straight into the 'bin' category!

[Katie]

When the Harry Potter series was still ongoing, I enjoyed discussing and taking apart the book online.

The only way I can think of to prevent people trying to work out the hints would be a competition? Maybe that would make people want to keep their ideas to themselves in order to win?

Or i suppose an author could put in clues that don't make sense until you read the next book and link it to a seemingly inconsequential detail in the first one.

[Esther]

There has to be some extraordinary writing to make Deus Ex Machina work.
I don't like to spoiler myself and try to keep the surprise.
I started to avoid Happy Potter fan sites because even though most of them were scrupulous about spoilers there was so much discussion and speculation about "What happens next?" that it began to feel like we had covered every possible, and sometimes preposterous, alternative in existence.

[Ken]

I think J K Rowling's people definitely encouraged the on-line discussions. There was so much debate that even real spoilers would have been lost in the haystack of speculation.

I wish I could generate as much chatter about my books!

[Dave]

When I read the heading the first think that came to mind was Babylon 5. A TV show that did foreshadowing to perfection, small clues laid in early episodes that lead to much bigger things later on. But it did this right in the start of the internet age, and indeed discussions of this hints was one of the first things that brought me to the internet. I don't think anyone ever got the direction completely right for the clues laid out. but it made for interesting discussions.

I remember long discussions in the pub around where the Harry Potter books would go. I'm still very smug that I guessed most of the major plot points of the final books having read the first 5. But I enjoyed the stories so much I didn't really mind spoiling it for myself.

I think the answer to your question is that foreshadowing is a fun part of any ongoing plot and people will always want to guess what happens next. A skilled writer will be able to either tell us what we've already guessed without making it look like a Deus Ex Machina, or better yet still surprise us.

Does this however mean that writers need to more skilled in the internet age?

[Ken]

Guessing what's going to happen is a fun part of reading, but if you guess right all the time then the book would probably be labelled as 'too predictable'. I think the skilled writer can lay a trail of clues, some of which will lead to an answer while others will be misleading or indeed red herrings.