“Foreshadowing is awesome.”

John Grisham gushes in The Onion about “This really neat literary device” he’s just discovered: “It’s this thing where, in the beginning of the story, you put in all these little ‘hints’ about stuff that’s going to happen later on. I can’t wait to try it out!”

Another thing I like is that you can put foreshadows in anywhere: in the dialogue, in the descriptions, even in the rising action. I suppose you could even plot out the whole story arc ahead of time, before you start writing, and put in the hints as you go along. Usually I just sit down and start typing, and then come up with a climax when I get to 450 pages.

I wish I had learned about this foreshadowing technique earlier. Like, in the beginning of The Partner—this story I wrote about a junior attorney who pulls off the white-collar crime of the century—I could have put in some “clues” that the guy’s lover is greedy or evil. That would have “foreshadowed” the end where she steals all his money. That would’ve been so cool!

He’s going to tell James Patterson and Patricia Cornwell all about it.