What is foreshadowing? — Simon Hawkins

Hey, I'm writing a Christmas song! And this is partly what made me think of this lovely songwriting tool: foreshadowing.

Foreshadowing is an English language device to drop into a lyric, linked to something used later on in the song.

How does it work?

Often, it can use many nouns to set up what/who/where/when we are in our lyric. Foreshadowing is linked to plot (which I mention in Song Maps) and narrative, so often used in books or films, and foreshadowing is used to create anticipation, a sense of thinking:

'Something is about to happen'

In one of my favorite songs, Three Wooden Crosses sung by Randy Travis, the great songwriters Kim Williams and Doug Johnson used foreshadowing in this. It's is an excellent example of setting up the whole song in verse 1 - introducing five people and a bus (a farmer, teacher, hooker, preacher, and bus driver) who are all on a journey bound to Mexico. And 'the eighteen-wheeler can't stop on a dime.' And the plot thickens in verses 2 and 3.

Interestingly, verse 3 ends up much later in the future with someone else describing this in a story to others, also part of the lyric. It's a fantastic example of saying so much in so few words. And this song uses foreshadowing to quickly introduce the story in verse 1.

How to use this?

Although 'Three Wooden Crosses' is a story song, foreshadowing can be used in any kind of song, as long as a little bit of planning is done to make this work. In terms of using this device, here are a few steps I'd suggest:

Verse 1: Find the main verbs/nouns and weave them into this verse (i.e., foreshadow them) for them to support the main idea in the chorus.
Chorus: Summarize the main idea. This could even be a very simple chorus.
Verse 2: Move on the story about the verbs/nouns from verse 1, somehow linking to the main idea in the chorus.
Verse 3/Bridge: Move the story on again but try to complete the lyric before getting to the chorus.

These are similar to the Timezones Song Map I mentioned in the book:

Verse 1 - Timezone 1 - the story begins

Chorus 1 - Title

Verse 2 - Timezone 2 - the story moves on

Chorus 2 - Title

Bridge - Timezone 3 or Payoff

Chorus 3 - Title

And this Song Map is a great way to write with foreshadowing. So it looks like my new Christmas song might be a Timezone song!

Question

What writable ideas in your Idea Bank could maybe be developed using foreshadowing? Do you have any Timezone writable ideas that could be developed this way?

– Simon