Dear Authors... Foreshadowing
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
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You should do a Dear Authors on families/family-like relationships.
YES!
Yeah, I wpuld like to see something like this, especially for parents. I can't find I lot of help on how to write them.
Monaca Towa what are you doing here??
@@Blueberry_Bubbles130 That's because they always die to shape the main characters or for simple shock value.
@@Blueberry_Bubbles130 Read The Bear and the Nightingale. Familial relationships on point 👌
Imagine a character going like “I've never been to a funeral” and then on the next chapters it's his/her funeral 😂
I'd actually like that in a satire
The best type of foreshadowing lol
Lol
Curb Your Enthusiasm theme plays
Didn't see that coming lol
Merphy has been foreshadowing this video for a long time now.
ahaha
Love to see it 🤣
Dang, I should have foresaw this comment coming.
The pieces have been there the entire time
I love that you complimented Neil Gaiman on his foreshadowing abilities and then the ad I got after the video is Neil Gaiman saying "the process of doing a second draft is the process of making it look like you knew what you were doing all along"
I love how that quote has pretty much become a meme on booktube 😂
So, her video foreshadowed the ad?
😂😂
I think we should not discriminate numbers when it's about shadowing. We should use four, five or higher dimensions to shadow things.
I find it appalling that in these progressive days, there is only four shadowing.
Was that... a Dad Joke?
@@just-trying-my-best-everyday That was a bad joke actually. :3
@@WAanik exactly
Kam if you have to ask, it’s not, for it to be a dad joke it has to be apparent
A cube is just the threedimensional shadow of a hypercube.
I'm listening to this podcast-style while I'm getting ready for work, and it's hilarious that I need to run back to my computer every few minutes to pause or skip to non-spoiler sections. I'm like: "No no no! La la la, I'm not listening!" :D
Lol
Same lol
Me too haha
what were you doing that needs to be away from the computer
Not a book, but the first season of 'The Good Place' is so good at foreshadowing. When the big reveal happens during the season finale it makes so much sense and when rewatching the first season you get all the clues.
Yes I completely agree it was so well planned out and I still kick myself for not realising while I was watching. It was really very good
Ooooo will definitely ✔ check that out
Edit: already watched the first season and yeah I totally see how the foreshadowing was done!!!!
Wait I don’t even remember what happened in the last season and what the foreshadowing was someone remind me
@@zoewilliamson4034 the first season
Omg right going back and seeing it it’s so obvious and they even say it outright a few times
I think foreshadowing is done really well in the Harry Potter books. You don't see something coming, but when it happens you discover all the things that have been pointing to it and upon rereading you find even more small clues. Like Ginny in the second book: there are so many times when someone mentions that there's something wrong with her and she even wants to tell them herself at some point, but it's just played of as if she's scared and worried, until you realise what has been bothering her the whole time. Another book that has good foreshadowing is 'They Both Die at the End' by Adam Silvera. You know they are going to die because it's the whole premise of the book and it is literally the title, but you don't know how it will happen or even see it coming until it's actually happening.
Yes with Harry Potter! And there's not only foreshadowing within the same book (like Ginny), but also foreshadowing for later books in the series! Like in the 2nd Harry hides in a kind of wardrobe in Borgin&Burkes, then Nick uses one in Hogwarts to distract Filch, in the 5th Fred&George push the Slytherin guy into one - and then in the 6th it's revealed it was always the Vanishing Cabinet!!
@@ajnosennovy2328 Yes, indeed. And I mean, chapter 1 of the first book is just full of people we will meet again sooner or later
@@lottevanderpaelt1684 When I was re-reading book 1 I actually caught something I missed Hagrid mentioned the McKinnons,bones and the Prewetts when He tells harry he's a wizard.
@@geo1038 Yes, exactly, even after rereading the books so many times you still find new clues and references
I respectfully disagree. It's the format partly I think. Every book is a school year and wherever is needed will be mentioned in the first 3 chapters. 🤷🏻♂️
I love when foreshadowing is used in pairs! For example, when there are two things being foreshadowed, but the reader is meant to guess the obvious one and they spend all their time hyperfixating on the clues for a twist they've already guessed (so they feel clever) and they're caught even more off guard with the second twist - not because the clues weren't there, but because they overlooked them while picking up clues for the obvious twist.
Please tell me you’re an author.
@@ihopeicanchangethisnamelat7108 Haha, I wish! But thank you; I feel like that's a compliment. I have book recommendations that do this, though, if you are interested in those! :))
@@hfollman98 I’m always looking for more books to read lol. What do you recommend?
@@ihopeicanchangethisnamelat7108 "Turn of the Key" by Ruth Ware and "Home Before Dark" by Riley Sager have good double twists! If you have any other genres you like, I have some recs!
Dang, this is happened to me in the book called Dream House. I'm put too much focus on first hint that the MC is just hallucinated and he is the murderer himself. And later on ... yeah, he is the murderer but the 2nd twist punch me on the face.
Hey Merphy,
Just wanted to say that I am currently working on my debut book, and your "dear author" series is really helping me out in forming my characters and plots well.
Just wanted to thank you for such amazing series which I enjoy even as a reader myself....
Me three.
Me four!
me five!
Me six!
Me sevennnn!
The best way to foreshadow is "Little did he know"
I've written papers on Little did he know!
I've taught lectures on Little did he know!
I just commented on this, I hate it so much lol
@Bronwyn Mary Has any author actually used that line seriously in the past decades? I thought this had been a discredited trope for ages.
Any use of it I could personally think of was for parody.
@Bronwyn Mary I finished a book today which granted is about 20yrs old but I think we knew about this then too... and it's literally MC saying "if I had known what was coming I would have done things differently", from the first page and then every time there's a big plot development.
In a series of unfortunate events I love how to author gives you a slight piece of foreshadowing and then explains what foreshadowing is.😂
This was blatant foreshadowing. A word which here means designed to make the reader into a conspiracy theorist.
All the random definitions by the narrator was great in those books
At the same time, the books have quite a bit of foreshadowing that the narrator doesn't draw attention to. My favourite example is early on in The Penultimate Peril, when the narrator is describing an opera and casually mentions halfway through that a gun is dropped on the floor and it fires and kills someone "in an accident that is remarkably similar to the one that occurs in chapter 9 of this very book". It enhances the already brilliant tension that the book (and the series as a whole) has.
Gosh your hair is always so gorgeous😍😫
I never pick up on foreshadowing I swear 😂
Merphy: "I have a Avatar graphic novel-"
ME: ADDICTION you have an Avatar ADDICTION.
Merphy: "summary video..."
Me: I consider that proof.
Let's be honest we are all addicted to Avatar.
Could you do a Dear Authors on fantasy races? I’m sure it would help a lot of other people besides me. These videos are great by the way, keep them up!
*gasp* YES PLEASE
I really need this
Merphy: Moving on to the more subtle ones
Ad starts
Because of this product, I can snuggle with my cat. (Anti-alergen product)
Ad ends
Merphy: actually, they're not subtle at all!
That was the best-timed ad I've seen in a long time.
The best way to start the day is with a Merphy vid. This should be interesting one!
Have a good day everyone.
And here in Sri Lanka the sun just went down
@@bakthihapuarachchi3447 Hello neighbour.
@@bluerectangle5794 hi=)
Thanks mate, I totally agree. Although it’s 11:30 pm but that’s fine as long as I get to watch the video. Lol
Yeah not so much from here in 🇮🇳 India its around 6:30 pm when her videos come out which actually is just the right time for me😉
-Stay safe everyone
Regarding your question about whether to keep this video format or return to the previous one - there's something to be said for either of them. Keep in mind, my approach won't be same as anyone else's, so they might disagree with anything I say.
~
This format sounded like an essay on analyzing the topic: informative, critical, and to a lesser extent supported by peer comments. I enjoyed it because of the seemingly educational take on this literary device. Foreshadowing can be difficult to nail. It deserves the type of analysis and lecture we received in this video, so thank you for your time dissecting it. I learned a lot. I had hoped to learn more. I have a lot more to learn.
~
Previous "Dear Authors" have felt much more based on review and sharing, where peers commented on their own perspectives. The responses from these community tabs are from readers who know what they like, they know what works - but more importantly, they know what doesn't. They don't want to see again what already didn't work in the last book or the book before that. In other words, previous "Dear Authors" episodes took in a lot more comments that were written from the point of view of experience from a much wider audience range.
~
This format seemed to approach Foreshadowing from an educational standpoint. I think you did a good job! Other video formats approached literary devices from a standpoint of being burned - if you catch my drift. The point is, I preferred your previous formats because I learned from what doesn't work - what readers don't want to see. I learn the best from my mistakes and mistakes of other writers. I know what not to do. That helps my writing the most.
~
Thank you for your time and consideration.
I agree with all of this.
I preferred this style. Too much "well don't do it like THAT" comes off as whiny/complainy. Which I entirely lay at the community for not often making positive comments; Merphy can only work with what she's been given. But I subscribed because I like her, I like her style, I want to hear her thoughts about books, not everyone elses. *shrug*
FWIW, I am probably more the original intended audience here... a reader. Not a writer. A glancing inspection of the comments on these videos shows that some authors are taking it too literally. If you're not able to figure this stuff out yourself as a reader, your book won't be any better for taking these videos in a spirit of being spoonfed the answer you so desperately crave either.
honestly the "x will never happen" then thing happens a second later could be used for comedy, but it works better in cinema or animation. It has a name, even, it's a Giligan Cut. An example is on the episode "the runaway" in Avatar The Last Airbender. Aang says "I promise we will not make a habit of doing these scams" giligan cut to him doing the scams, or in Lion King where Timon goes "what do you want me to do, dress in drag and do the hula?" cut to him doing exactly that. That sort of thing. Again, for comedy purposes it works best visually (since the sudden cut is part of the joke), but I'm sure you can make it work on writing too.
It seems to me that a plotter definitely has the advantage over the pantser when it comes to foreshadowing. In my experience, rewriting and inserting foreshadowing points can be a little bit clunky.
Yeah I agree. It needs to flow and connect smoothly.
I don’t write about my plots as I find it is the quickest way to make myself lose interest in my story. What I do, for example, for a piece of foreshadowing I am using at the moment, is come up with small ideas and choose one, then expand and work on foreshadowing in my head. I currently don’t know what will happen at the end of my book, but I know that the people they believed were the good guys are the bad guys, and I have made small parts of the story so far reflect that - when one character explains the rules of the world to the main character, some things don’t make sense, they don’t match up and it’s assumed that she’s just not getting the point across properly (in the middle of a fight, she’s just used up half her energy on magic, making little to no sense as she explains it to MC, so not surprising). A sign of magic that first appears the first time you enter the magic-world isn’t present on MC even though she was supposedly taken from magic-world at birth and the good guys (basically magic-world’s government) are ‘saving’ her from the real-world. Side-character who is working for the ‘good guys’ notices that the magic (the magic is sentient, don’t ask) is easier to use when she isn’t using it for the government, but is always (thanks to the work the government makes her do, using magic which uses up a lot of energy) too confused and exhausted to understand why or that it’s important. Another character (aforementioned side character’s brother) is worried about the state she is constantly in and thinks magic-world government is overworking her when they ‘train’ her in magic, keeping family secrets from her that he doesn’t realise concern the government, and not connecting the two things. I don’t know the exact details at the end, but I know the way this foreshadowing will pay off. I think, for me, this is the best way to write as I stay interested in the story but the foreshadowing still works.
Please don't ever stop saying "ok so today" in every beginning of ur videos lol, it cures my boredom.
A lot of people are talking about Harry Potter but this is another one I wanted to add.
In OOTP Petunia goes "I heard that awful boy telling her about them, years ago" - She is talking about dementors. Originally I thought she was talking about James, but she is actually talking about Snape.
This was one of the best foreshadowing ever ~😁♥️
There’s another great example at the end of GoF, when Harry is telling Dumbledore about the events in the graveyard. After Harry says Voldemort took his blood, he sees triumph in Dumbledore’s eyes, but later thinks it was just his imagination. That was an amazing bit of foreshadowing!
WHAT?! Why did I not notice this??!!
@@janhavi1977 yeees i remember this one , on my re read
The words "ten heartbeats" and "weapon" immediately gave away, for me, Shallan's "secret" in The Way of Kings.
Heck, just the ten hearbeats, given how it is always made a big deal of by other characters. A more subtle part is her thinking about how she might not have to wait to ten, but reprimands herself for imagining the possibility.
@@thatnerdygaywerewolf9559 Yeah, I feel like the "Ten heartbeats" thing wasn't really the big reveal, it was probably meant to be obvious, but it was used to hide the more subtle and important clue (which is what you talked about in your comment). I like that we only really learn how everything surrounding her ten heartbeats thing works in a scene with Kaladin at the end of book 2, and then you can look back and see exactly what was going on with Shallan. It's especially well done considering there are multiple scenes where we should find out, except that their either written from a different character's perspective to hide what Shallan knows, or they're very carefully written to avoid directly mentioning it.
"Hint early and hint lightly" is excellent advice, and something I'm proud of with my recently completed fic. I had a character, A, who would turn out to be secretly this Enigmatic Bad Guy, but in my first draft, the foreshadowing was so sloppy (the EBG was first mentioned in one chapter, the next A is specifically introduced because of her family connection of EBG), so when I went back and rewrote it, I put a hint to EBG in the fics third chapter, and then introduced A in a completely different scene in the 13th chapter after that, and while their connection is discovered in the same chapter as the original (17/18), it feels much more organic. There's other foreshadowings I have going on, for later sequels, and I'm excited to see how many people will remember them when I get to their reveals.
Thanks for being an awesome content creator, Merphy. I don't watch every video, but Dear Authors is one of my fave YT series now, and I'm excited to see what other topics you cover in the future!
As a aspiring author this version of dear author with less random comments is more useful but I really like the normal version too.
Strangely the storm light archive spoiler did not feel like it was hiding it all that much, I had really thought it was a fact before the end of book one.
I know some people hate the second foreshadowing method you mentioned, but I personally love when authors tell the readers what will happen, who will die etc., because it gives me a sense of impending dread; I feel like I now have to savor every moment I have with the character I know will die. I am addicted to that feeling of helplessness with the internal conflict while I'm reading of "Wait, maybe this is preventable!" but it is a futile thought because the characters don't know what I know, so they don't know what to avoid; it's frustrating, but a great way to engage the reader and make them feel something genuine - fear and sadness and longing and the inevitability of death.
THAT COMMENT ABOUT HINTING CAME UP SOOOO OFTEN, it took me ages to find a comment that wasn't about that🤣🤣
Idk if it's just me but I LOVE foreshadowing on the covers of books. I love looking back at the cover after reading the book and connecting all the references.
I like when a character is warned that they shouldn't do something, but then later on they do that very thing.
I was gonna say that when clary did this I got so mad...
Then I remembered Percy Jackson which I loved
When she said "my husband" I was like wait she's not 18...
She's 27 haha
Attack on titan is literally littered with foreshadowing everywhere isayama is a master at this. I suggest you watch/read attack on titan fully to see why.
I was about to write this! Would be amazing if Mercy watched AoT
true. I'm a huuuge aot fan (it's my fav anime/manga of all time) and i LOVE the way Isayama puts hints in so many ways. It's so satisfying. For example, when you look at the season two ending and then at the current manga arc, you can see how heavy the foreshadowing is bc the manga panels are more or less shown but you can't figure it out bc the story is way too complex to just figure it out. I love it.
I was looking for that one AoT comment XD
There are specific pieces of dialogue and character choices that have completely different contexts after later events in the series. Not to mention clues left about the world as well. And it all ties in organically. It’s so satisfying when you see the world that was intricately crafted and thought out ahead of time being revealed to you.
I was thinking the same. Idk if Merphy would like AOT since it’s very much a revenge story, but it would be cool if she gave it a try to see if it intrigues her at all.
When I first wrote the dialogue in my game I didn't really plan on alluding to anything. I just wanted the player to feel this or that toward the different characters. Now, considering character motivations, big reveals, etc.. I plan on rewriting with subtle foreshadowing, both hinting at character motivations and plot twists that won't be fully revealed until later on in the game. Not only that, but I also want to really think about how everything should make sense in the context of the game's world. Your videos have really helped me to fine tune a lot of these ideas in my head a lot. Thanks so much and please keep doing what you do.
The One Piece manga is so good at this. The author will introduce something like introducing a character, but won't touch on it again for literally 300 to 400 chapters latter when it comes back in a huge way.
This is extremely important in mystery novels, of course. The foreshadowing *must* exist just enough so that if you are very attentive you too, like the detective, should be able to figure out whodunit. I find *And Then There Were None* to be an excellent example. The plot is so interesting that you want to keep going, keep reading, but the foreshadowing is of the type that if you slow down and think carefully you should be able to figure it out. But you don't want to slow down. Your own nature can be made to work against you, and on a reread it becomes startling all the clues missed.
Agatha Christie doesn’t cheat. She gives you the clues. Arthur Conan Doyle, on the other hand, cheats all the time. Sherlock Holmes’ elegant solutions are often based on information only he has because only he knows some obscure piece of knowledge that’s critical to the solution. It still works because that’s Holmes’ superpower and we love him for it, but it works in a different way.
I read murder on the orient express and I noticed no foreshadowing watsoever, it made me not like the book, did I just miss it??
A Series of Unfortunate Events are books I think did the foreshadowing of directly telling you very well. It felt stylistic and unique.
I enjoyed this new format! While I find all the Dear Authors videos to be helpful with my writing, there was more depth in this video because you spent more time on fewer comments.
I love how I learn more about writing while watching this. It gets the cogs in the brain rolling. *que evil book plotting*
A Song of Ice and Fire had some mad foreshadowing too!
Hodor?
It's tough to do a reread bc of all the foreshadowing, annoying gahhh.
When Sansa goes “i DoN't wAnT sOmeOne bRavE aNd GeNtlE AnD sTrOng” Oh girl, my poor girl 😂
George R.R. Martin is a master of foreshadowing.
GRRM answers the questions you didn't know to ask yet.
Another “Dear Authors...” vid that’s both timely and incredibly informative when in the middle of a writing project. ❤️
I've heard the rule of three can apply for this. For example, if an item turns out to be important in the climax, it needs to be introduced in act 1, you need to be reminded of it in act 2 and then it needs to be used in act 3. Of course it's just a guideline, but it's good to practice with guidelines and then learn when you can break those guidelines.
Sanderson is an absolute master at this. My personal favourite part of his books. Especially Mistborn.
Your videos are so nice and calming to watch on rainy days 😔
I LOVE THIS FORMAT! I like knowing what the repeat comments are in the beginning like good foreshadowing it’s more satisfying for me haha
I absolutely love the dear authors series! Both fun and educational haha - and the way you approached foreshadowing here is really helpful!
Congrats on 180k !!! 200K here we come!💓
Its a bit random.
*some major spoiler alert*
But in "the lies of Locke Lamora" there was this reminiscent where father chains told locke that "someday he'll mess up really hard and he (father Chains) wants to be alive to see it." Locke then said : "I'll never mess up" or something similar. But I liked how Scott lynch put that reminiscent right after everything happend (Calo and Galdo death, I cried so hard btw). It's not foreshadowing, more aftershadowing. Lol found it quite satisfying.
I totally agree! Fore- (and after)shadowing in Lies of Locke Lamora is phenomenal. But maybe you could add a spoiler warning to your comment, since you mention some major character deaths? That would be great:)
@@svenjaf335
Wait I didn't add it? Ups thanks
I loved this video. Maybe a Dear Authors video on Cliff hangers? I personally would find this very interesting.
I'm honestly surprised you didn't mention Robert Jordan at all. One of my favorite bits of foreshadowing is the revelation of the daughter of the nine moons. In book three, Mat's told he will marry her. But in book two the court of the nine moons in Seanchan or the Empress of Seanchan in her court of the nine moons is mentioned twice, and in book four it's mentioned three times. Still, people think it comes out of nowhere in book nine.
that's a really good point. He should have been in the end of the video where I talked about authors that do great at this
I actually enjoy this format so much more than the previous one! I’d love more dear authors videos like this one
Now I have to reread Mistborn. Thanks, Merphy!
This was great! Tbh I think foreshadowing is the most important writing tool - even character arcs have promises early on that must be fulfilled
Here'd be a difficult one to tackle; Dear Authors: Exposition. It is necessary in many cases, but very difficult to do. Any sifi or fantasy writer struggles with it
A Dear Authors about Plot Twist would be awesome!!
Tale of Two Cities has AMAZING foreshadowing. Dickens weaves such a beautiful and complicated web that is packed with foreshadowing in the most subtle details of the scene like footsteps and the way the curtains look.
Random example I came up with. The Prisoner of Azkaban movie. I haven’t read the books in a while but I recently rewatched the movie, and I think this is a big part of why people say it’s the best movie. There are hints to everything that happens in climax of the movie through out, everything that’s revealed when they’re in the shrieking shack had hints littered throughout and are even better when you rewatch the movie. One of my favorite parts of the movie is when Harry has the Maurader’s Map (correct me if I’m spelling that wrong) and sees Peter Petegrew’s name and he can’t find him. During that scene, you can hear a rat running past him quickly... It’s so perfect, and I love it when writers do this.
the silent patient is suchhh a good example for foreshadowing done right
I really appreciate that you don't just say a spoiler is coming but also how big of a deal they are
I love the way the Red Wedding was foreshadowed, throughout the book the bread and salt and the holyness of guestright keep on being mentioned and you feel a false sense of security until the Rains of Castamere starts playing 😭😭😭
Oh yesss, also
SPOILER for A song of Ice and Fire
Ned and Robert's death was foreshadowed in the beginning. In the crypt. After that when they were riding through a grave yard. It looks like Ned followed him to his grave which is true.
I see a lot foreshadowing for King Bran in his 2and chapter. I am convinced he ends up as a King. Also let's just talk about Patchface. He seems to foreshadow more than just the Red Wedding
I absolutely love the foreshadowing done in Dark. There's a bunch of things being mentioned that will be revealed in a later episode or even season, but it's super easy to miss because everything is complex.
Every time I notice something being foreshadowed it's so great because you know how it will happen or what exactly it is they're referring to.
My most recent experience with fantastic foreshadowing was actually with a webcomic, Harbourmaster. (I recommend it for fans of sci-fi, worldbuilding, and great friendships!) Last month I reread everything that's posted so far. It was my first reread and the amount of subtle foreshadowing that I could pick up was phenomenal. There was a page from 10 years ago foreshadowing a reveal that just happened this year and I GASPED when I realized!
I really liked this new format. As a writer, I found it informative and helpful.
I like both ways you do your “dear authors” series. This one breaks down a more abstract idea, where as your other style shows what kinds of options there are. You always fill your videos with both good and bad examples, that help clarify what you are trying to say.
Thanks
I knew it!! Brandon is a diamond at keeping hints subtle, but having read a few of his books, I know his style. Though I can't always know what he's trying to tell us, I know what bit's I should be remembering for the reveals later on.
This is my first "Dear Authors" vid so van't comment on the setup, but I enjoyed it :)
Foreshadowing is a dramatic device in which an important plot point is mentioned earlier in the story to return later in a significant way.
Best foreshadowing for me so far was in Cresent City - new SJM book. There were like all kinds of foreshadowings and even if you guessed some of them, it later on became clear that they were there as distractions or even misleads. I'm amazed with this book's twists and turns and highly recommend it!
I really do like it more when there are examples. I like the new format
Garcia-Marquez does Tell the Reader so well, in such an interesting way. In both One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, past, present and future exist all at once, so he will say things like, "years later, standing before the firing squad, he would remember this moment". And it's thrown away so that you forget about it until you get to the firing squad and you're like ahhhhh so good.
When you mentioned Neil Gaiman, a book that comes to my mind is Good Omens. At first, I encountered some scenes in the book seemed a little out of place and characters that didn’t seem to connect to the story, but as I went on, I realized that they were important and that they each had an important role to play in the ending of the story. For example, the four apocalyptic horse persons were foreshadowed in some of the scenes near the beginning/middle but I didn’t really catch on who each of them were until I thought about it and figured it out. Of course, there were also some that were obvious foreshadowing (like the baby swap where it was told to the readers that there was a mistake), and it balanced out the story well. Definitely a fun story from Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
Love this new style for Dear Authors!!
On my reread of Cinder by Marissa Meyer, I saw soooo many hints, now so clear, I LOVED it! My friend was first time reading it the same time with me, and it was killing me not being able to point them out for her too 😂 These little things make your favorite books so satisfying to reread, and fall in love again/even more ❤️
Just came to say i love the Dear Authors vids, every time a new one comes out i'm like "oh yeah need to watch right away". So yeah, thank you for this great content :)
Thanks for the time skips, starting the cosmere series and I'm going in blind
Merphy said once that she is not acquit to give writing advice...
Well, I say Dear Authors is GOLDEN writing advice. Absolutely love hearing different readers' thoughts and it contributes greatly on what I need to improve in my books.
Thanks so much Merphy!
Loved the new structure of this Dear Authors video! Please, keep it this way!
I feel like this is something Timothy Zahn does really well. His books/plots tend to have a lot of complicated clockwork moving parts that come together in the climax and make the reader go "...oh. OH." in a really satisfying way. I wish I could selectively erase my memory so I can read each Zahn book again for the first time. Icarus Hunt is probably the most 'I SAW those clues!' thing bc it is very Noir-feeling, but something like Warhorse or Deadman Switch does it very well also. Even his YA/middle-grade series Dragonback has a lot of things that you pick up on the second read.
two things. first, i think a good tip is to have more than one thing you're foreshadowing to. if there's something you're supposed to be hinting at, it's more useful when it's not just a single secret or fact that changes everything but an entire situation, which is necessarily more complex and has more variables. just like the last comment said, even if you guess SOMETHING and you're right, it's not the whole picture, and even if you do somehow guess exactly what happened, the uncertainty of whether you got /something/ wrong or not will probs keep you reading. second: figuring out ONE crucial bit of that situation and catching the foreshadowing about it can make the reading experience so much better. a book that did this for me very well was the sparrow by mary doria russell. i figured out what would be the emotional climax in the second? third? chapter and i was exactly right. but by the third act, i had been reading on the main character enough to know just how devastating what would happen would be for him. and indeed, since the book is told in two timelines, i already had seen him destroyed. but it mattered now. and the depth of my understanding, having caught every bit of foreshadowing, made the moment of the not-reveal just all the more horrifying and painful. i loved it.
I remember playing FF7 when I was young and was so blown away by the plot twist and foreshadowing. I was so amazed by how stories can be like that, and that's when I started to shift on reading books hoping to find more of them twists.
I can't believe some random videogame I played before opened my inner bookworm self.
I definitely enjoyed this version more! It felt less like an affirmation or rebuke of our opinions and more like an analysis
I really liked this new format for videos for the “Dear Authors” series, Merphy!
I aspire to write and to make that a living, and I really enjoy "Dear Authors"'s and thiiiiiiis was perfect to me, actually getting good examples in actual texts how things can be done well or why something fails miserably. If this is the format from now on, I'd at least be HERE FOR IT! I don't care about spoilers because I usually forget them by the time I'm checking out the book for myself, also I can still enjoy the book even if I remember what is spoiled.
There's another type of foreshadowing I love, which I think of as "subtext foreshadowing". Basically it's when there's a subplot or a piece of imagery / history / *something* that actually hints at (or even lays out beat by beat) what's going to happen in the story. But you don't see it because it doesn't appear to be connected at first glance
Merphy gave up on ASOIAF early on, but Martin is great at this, and it makes his books incredibly satisfying on a reread. There are so many hints for various things to happen in the future which I'm absolutely convinced we'll see, just because I've learned that this is the way Martin writes. For example, I'm CONVINCED Jon Snow is going to lose an eye. It comes up over and over again, how many times he *almost* loses an eye, or meets a one eyed character, etc. I don't have the books to hand but he does this with so many things. Arya's plot and Bran's plot and Jon's heritage are all hinted at in this way. Kind of obliquely or metaphorically.
It's one of my favourite types of foreshadowing.
I enjoyed the new format a lot! I specially liked all the examples.
This is a good series, and I really like the changes you did in this video. I almost want you to do the old topics because of how well thought out this one was
The best example of "hidden in plain sight" foreshadowing that I can think of is done in Crooked House (Agatha Christie). Brandon Sanderson is a great example of "throwaway line" foreshadowing, I noticed it in Elantris as well as Mistborn. It's why now I try to pay extra attention when reading his books!
Ya know, that one spoiler segment has me thinking; wouldnt mind you reading to us as a series lol
Wait doesn't she voice audio books? And reading vlogs too, might wanna check that out
I really think JK Rowling was good at Foreshadowing. And I just don't mean the Harry is a horcrux which started all the way back with scar twinges in book 1. My favorite is a throw away line in book one where Hagrid said he borrowed the bike from Sirius Black. It comes back in book 3 so that if you remember that you know Sirius has a connection to Harry even before hes told.
And in book 5 when they’re clearing out the house and he mentions throwing away a locket no one could open and then in book 7 they realise they threw out what at the time seemed like their last hope of defeating the darkest wizard of all time.
I really like this version of the Dear Authors, even more than the regular! The examples were my favorite parts, but it was also great to hear you summarize the comments :)
I just finished mistborn for the first time a few weeks ago and now I want to go back and reread them immediately to find that foreshadowing scene in the first book you talked about!!
Yeah I've almost finished it (got 200 pages left of hero of ages) and I absolutely cannot think of the foreshadowing scene in the first book!!
If you find out which scene is she taking about let me know, I've just finished book 2 and I don't understand what she meant
I just finished The Well of Ascension and now I really want to know what I missed lol
Another great, great - GREAT - example are the 'Epigraphs' of The Way of Kings. My favorite is by far:
"Above the final void I hang, friends behind, friends before. The feast I must drink clings to their faces, and the words I must speak spark in my mind. The old oaths will be spoken anew."
Also I'm not completely sure if those kind of prophecies count as foreshadowing?
okay hi so before this video starts I just want to say THANK YOU for all of these videos! As an amature but aspiring writer Im so happy to see how readers view books and series so I can improve and make better stories myself. You say youre not a teacher in writing, but these videos help a lot with trying to figure out in what genre your story fits and how many tropes youre using and if youre using them in a good way (or if its bad how you could change them). Im still working on the more technical part of writing myself, but seeing my stories in particular be on the more "well-portrayed" part of your community really boosts my morale on improving it and actually finishing it maybe someday
long story short: thank you, these videos help a LOT
I love dear authors though I know you said it wasn't for writers but it just reminds me of all the things I don't like and helps me develop my story.
Thank you!
One of the best foreshadowings I've ever seen done was in The Dark Tower series. Everything is so subtle (well, some things are in your face, but most aren't) and sprinkled out, that even now, more than 10 years after I've finished it, I still have those waking-up-sweaty-in-the-middle-of-the-night moments, when I realize something I had missed. Truly a masterpiece.
The last time I was this early, Bill Cipher was still trapped in the nightmare realm.
Loved the length of this video and the points.
I may or may not have totally just bought the Mistborn series. I've always wanted to read them.
There's nothing quite like Attack on Titan when it comes to foreshadowing. Someone already suggested it, but I'll do it again because it's just that good. It's a bit gratuitous with its gore and violence, but you get used to it. Just don't get spoiled, it's hard to talk about the AoT plot without spoiling anything, so people get spoiled a lot
This. AoT is a masterclass in foreshadowing and world-building. He does something particularly interesting by blending these both aspects, as moments of world-building can double as foreshadowing later on. It adds an absurdo amount of rewatchability/re-readability(is that a thing??).
Also, I agree it's gratuitous but I think it works as a great tone setter, and after certain plot beats you see that ridiculousness cut down severely as it's not needed anymore, plot-wise.
@atomicambition8899anime fans trying to accept a different opinion ( level impossible ):
I liked this video a lot, the more structured approach to 'dear authors' seems to work for me!
Reading 3rd Mistborn book I kept thinking 'Gods, he planned it ALL since the very beginning!', brilliant.
And for the 'narrator just tells you' I'd suggest the Secret History by Donna Tart. The story is so engaging precisely because you know the big thing from the first page, and it kills you to figure out how the hell it will happen.
I love it when there's enough foreshadowing that you can guess it but you aren't sure if it'll actually happen.
For example with The Lost Ember I guessed both of the big twists before they came, but it was in more of a "lol wouldn't it be funny if this happened" way and I was still surprised when they ended up happening.
It's so frustrating when you're reading/watching something and you suddenly just _know_ where the plot is going despite the author's desperate attempts at hiding it.