I'm by no means an authority on the subject, but what I think works well is dropping hints that don't seem like hints in different scenes/conversations. Stuff that seems like it's just part of the current scene but when put together with the other hints reveal the plot twist. The art here is to make these hints seem mundane in every way, but a discerning reader will figure it out quickly.
this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2025
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My personal favorite is to have a down and out cynic character just be constantly spouting conspiracy theories, eventually, some conspiracy theory is going to be right.
A campaign I ran had a drunken indebted and disgraced count who during a call to arms meeting cause a scene with a "we're all gonna die" speech, that the empire was going to come into the operation and kill both the invasion and their forces to further secure the duchies they were defending.
So you're essentially saying that I should blend the hints into scenes so that they don't get noticed? That's a cool technique, I will definitely try that! This also reminded of the twist from Oldboy, I loved the hints upon rewatching! They led the audience into the wrong path, made them think the wrong outcome. I absolutely loved the very first hint in the movie, the way it tricks you into thinking something else and you just completely forget about it after a couple of minutes. Brilliant movie, loved it.
I think the most important thing is that the plot twist must make sense.
The setup works best when the reader is like: "something is off, it doesn't add up, there must be a plot twist, but what could it be?". And then after the plot twist like: "ah, now it makes sense"
And the worst ones are when the reader is like "the town is clearly fake" but then the town has a functioning river and no one ever complains about the lack of a sky so it can't be fake and then the story is like "actually the town is fake what a plot twist huh" AAARGH (this happened to me once and I'm still angry)
The "twist" should be foreshadowed. On a second read, a reader will probably be like "oh dang that's so obvious".
From fight club the movie, when Norton beats himself up at his work, he says "for some reason I was reminded of my first fight with Tyler". Most viewers won't think much on that. But when you know the twist, it makes perfect sense and seems obvious.
A lot of stories especially modern movies have/had twist that clearly arent written with the "twist" in mind. Gambo was especially a bad trendsetter with the twist for the twist sakes. Arcane S2 also had this issue when the writers thought it would be deep to have a meta-twist "what if y actually became the diametrically opposed z". The red wedding in the books was very obvious in hindsight but since it went against western cultural tropes - it was shocking, especially since protags acting "dumb" is rarely punished in fiction.
I don't think that stories need twists at all. Don't try to be clever.
While I know that not all stories need twists, I want to try writing them anyway because they're challenging/tricky.
I was just in a writer's critique group where I was trying to parse through this.
self harm
My MC has self harm scars on his arms. It's not revealed until later that they take a big toll on his feelings of security and acceptance. It starts out as a fae mentioning his forearms. Then anxiety about taking off his shirt and how he prepared for the possibility. Then begging a lover not to ask his friends about them.
What really landed for me as a schema I want to follow is how Oda does foreshadowing in One Piece.
One Piece spoilers
When One Piece starts, the whimsical guy's name is Monkey D. Luffy. You go, oh that's a silly name. Then you get a reveal that the pirate king was Gol D. Roger and you go, huh, that's weird. Then you learn that they always die with a smile and it's like, what the helly? And by time Luffy awakens Joyboy within him, Vegapunk mentions them in his dead man's switch video, and the mural mentions the half moon clan you're begging to know what the fuck is up with that fucking D (like ur mom)?!
When you're new to the series and ask "what does the D in Luffy's name stand for?" You need something more and something deeper than if his middle name was Donovan or something. Therefore the foreshadowing works to draw you into a deeper mystery. Because when the author tells you "the D. means that he has inherited his will from a lost kingdom from a bygone era, but the second world, not the first" you can get a sense of why that's awesome because you built a world first.
So, from my POV, and I haven't implemented it well, so I need to edit the novel, the significance isn't just in the fact that there's a mystery. There is more entertainment and clarity of narrative if your foreshadowing grows in scope or significance over time. If more hinges on discovery or if each successive hint means something more engaged with the world that you've built then it serves to draw the reader in.
spoiler
PLOT TWIST: I decided that the topic was about foreshadowing and not plot twists and answered anyway because I hate you
Even pretty obvious hints can be hidden in plain sight if the red herrings are interesting and well-thought-out enough in their own right. It's also fun for the reader to pursue false leads and have a chance to see ahead of time that they don't offer an adequate explanation.