[Ilona]

So yeah, I'm writing a book. Or at least what should at some point become a book. (Or actually a trilogy, and oh watch me fail at ever accomplishing anything this ambitious... I can try, though.) And as the plan currently stands, I'm going to introduce a fairly major player sort of towards the end of the story (last book or towards the end of second), but I don't want him to just fall out of the sky leaving the reader wondering wtf I've been smoking when I wrote it. I want to drop some hints along the way, so that when he appears the reader (or most of them at least) will go like "ahaaaaaaaaa", but I don't want to rub it in their faces throughout the first/second book that "OH LOOK SOMETHING GUNNA HAPPEN YO!"

And... Yeah, I know I'm not exactly giving enough information for anyone to help me, exactly, with this particular case. What I was thinking is more like, do any of the other authors around here ever struggle with things like this, or does it just come naturally?

[SpectreofEschaton]

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking for, but I can relate something from my own planned trilogy/quadrilogy (not sure still) that's set up a book in advance.

Basically, my main character is a warrior with severe PTSD, which he has because his demi-goddess saint sister, who he loved and worshiped to the point of insanity (bad childhood with his parents, she raised him from when he was 9, and she's literally superhumanly graceful in the spiritual sense.) was killed beside him in battle by a particularly nasty demon. He held her in his arms as he breathed her last, and the last thing she told him was to implore him "you must not forswear love." And he hasn't. He's been murdering people for 12 years now in the name of his love for her, killing those who do not meet the expectations of his love which have been set ludicrously high. (As I said, he's really messed up).

Anyway, the other person who raised him is an ancient god (who fostered said sister) who makes a living grooming heroes as every other god is a useless layabout and the world is going to hell. This man (god) happened to love said sister (Actually let's use names for convenience. Man is Kyarr, sister is Skeye, god is Asinori) profoundly, something he's never allowed himself to do before (for the very strange reason that he thinks it brings mortals grief knowing that when they die, they're leaving him alone forever with the emotions he has for them). So, yeah, they share a superhumanly close bond.

Anyway the second, I drop various hints toward both their relationships to this woman throughout the first book (they're estranged at that point and meet back up in the book). And in the second book, they go to visit her grave, where Kyarr breaks down and demands that Asinori resurrect her. And Asinori goes on this whole spiel about how he could only reclaim the soul of the war-goddess, not the woman they both loved (metaphysics setting issue), and Kyarr storms off into the forest (she has a cairn in the wood where she was killed). But... after he leaves, Asinori actually resurrects her, and... she is indeed a hollow of the person she was, and her continuing story is fairly wracking, but she ends up getting the *only* happy ending out of the entire cast. (She might be my favorite character...)

And what I'm trying to do is set this up as not a cheesy resurrection, but a logical movement of the plot and one that serves the story, rather than impairs it. I hope I'm okay, given that a.) she died before the story begins and b.) she isn't actually restored to herself until the very end of the story, at a sickening, horrendous cost to literally the rest of world, not to mention the entire pantheon who dies as a result of Asinori's actions in her name.

Sorry if that was a bit long-winded. Hopefully that's somewhere in the ballpark of what you were looking for for this thread.

[Defiance]

There are a few ways you can do this. You can do it the Erikson way, where it just seems to come out of nowhere but on a second read you find out all sorts of obvious foreshadowing. Just make most of your foreshadowing really obscure for this.

You can do it the hold the reader's hand way, where you basically point out an instance/instances of earlier foreshadowing that led up to this. In my opinion this is the worst way, as a) it diminishes from the rereading value and it's a bit insulting to the intelligence of your readers. It's like those books that summarize everything that has happened in previous installments of the series; it's just not a very good technique.

The third way is sort of a mix of the two. Make some really obscure foreshadowing, but have a scene that is memorable but not revealing. Then, during the reveal, have something that ties back to that link. A great example of this is Kellanved and Dancer being Shadowthrone and Cotillion, as is stated explicitly in DG (and more or less in GoTM). We (or at least I) didn't see this coming in the slightest, but when I read it I realized just how much sense it made, recalling the two's actions/things said about them in earlier books. Obviously, you want to lay the ground work for making the connection when the reveal is done, but you don't want to actually have anything suggesting a connection until said reveal is done.

It's late and I'm tired, so this input probably wasn't very helpful. Anyway, I wish you luck with your book - I'm still working on getting my ass started writing mine.

[Use Of Weapons]

Rule 1: Accept that, whatever method you choose, some readers will find it painfully obvious, and others will just never realise, however small/large a clue-brush you use to paint in your foreshadowing.

Rule 2: Having accepted the truth of Rule 1, just go with what feels right for you and for the story.

[Ilona]

Spectre - I'm not entirely sure what I was asking for, myself, so yeah, I apologise if I was confusing people. I guess I mainly just wanted discussion about the subject in general and how other people do it. Or something.

Defiance - No, I think that was helpful, at least in putting to words what I was thinking but didn't know how to say. It's exactly the reread-value-enhancing kind that I'm after. Now I just need to learn to be subtle enough.

jitsukerr - That is a very good point.

[Fist Gamet]

Mixing up how you do this is certainly important, imho, and doing so lets you have a little fun with it. For example, subtle approaches are clever so long as you dont try to fool the reader. Intentional and obvious foreshadowing is also fine if you are looking to make something obvious - maybe it's not so important to the plot to keep it uncertain. However, obvious foreshadowing that leads the reader to a certain conclusion that you DONT take them to is something to think about. In crime fiction this would be the red herring. I am not saying you should dupe the reader (not a good idea) but that you should ALWAYS look to find a fresh way to present a concept, image, metaphor or idea; have some fun and experiment to see what works, how it works and how you can tweak it. Just write and have others read it and give you feedback.