I was reading an article about foreshadowing at the start of a story, either with a prologue a la Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet, anyone?) or with the opening paragraphs of the story, as Heinlein and others have done. Depending on your genre, prologues might be out of fashion, not that it matters all that much. And you might need to signal events in later stories or books, or at least hint at them.

For example, this is from What I Did Over Spring Break (not the title, but a story I started as a brain break):

“Many seasons later, as they lay in bed, Aruka asked, “How came you here?”

Terry thought of words that would make sense to her. “I was told not to walk through a door, lest it take me to a dangerous place.”

She laughed and caressed his shoulder, stubby fingers and palm fur warm on his bare skin. “This is not dangerous.”

“You snared my over-spirit, did you not, oh trapper?” The word did not translate to ‘heart’ in English, but held the same sense, to grab someone’s love.

She considered, then snuggled closer and fell asleep. He smiled. Aruka would not understand that part of his story, just as he did not understand parts of hers. For now, it did not matter.”

The story will be a portal fantasy, with a gateway to a world different from ours, but not wildly different. After this scene, the story jumps back in time, to when Terry is in our world, and sketches out his character and how he finds the doorway and the warning. Technically, it’s not true foreshadowing, more of scene setting so readers know genre and a bit of after-portal world building.

In a different book, crows make themselves known on the first page of the book. They play a major role in the story later on, and foreshadow how the crows bother the main character. I didn’t worry about the Rule of Three, because I knew the birds would return several times as themselves.

What’s the Rule of Three? For foreshadowing to work, you need to hint at, nod to, or otherwise signal something at least three times before you spring it on your readers. You might have the protagonist notice what look like standing stones in the distance as he drives to somewhere. A few chapters later, he comments on a painting of standing stones in a museum, or in a private collection, the work of a local artist of note back in the Victorian times. Next chapter, as he’s looking for a different book, he moves a volume of legends about local megaliths and monuments out of his way. At this point, readers might not be truly aware of the role of the standing stones later on, but you’ve planted the seed that the rocks will be important at some point.

As an aside, Murphy’s Law also works as a form of foreshadowing in some kinds of stories, and with some characters. You know, like the way everyone groans during a baseball game when an announcer says, “It looks like Chavez is going to pitch a no-hitter, Bob.” Because he’s just jinxed it, and someone will get a hit. Probably a long solo homer, if the Gods of the Diamond are irked enough. “Oh, we’ve never had a problem with this car starting. That was the earlier model,” says the perky guy at the rental agency. You know what’s going to happen, probably at a rather plot-critical moment*, don’t you?

Now, what about series? I’m not sure if you call it foreshadowing, or Easter Eggs. It probably depends on how you drop hints, and if they are pretty clearly “this will come back,” or are only obvious several books later. I’m going to have to go back and add something to a short story to help foreshadow something three or so books in the future. It’s not strictly necessary, but I’m treating it as sort of the “eerie music in the background” hint, for later. It also fits into the story, so it won’t jump up and down and yell, “Hi, I’m a red herring! Or I foreshadow something in the future! Or I’m just one of those details authors drop in at random to mess with readers**!”

*This is where funny commercials and “mess with the tropes” jokes kick in for horror stories and the like. “Quick, let’s go hide in the basement!” Et cetera, et cetera.

**Several years ago I read a story that made me almost wall the anthology. I think the author was trying to use something as a red herring to distract the reader from the Important Thing. Except the clue appeared so often that when the real ending came, all I felt was irritated.