Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing can be accomplished by the use of story-driven or fictional events which can bring original dialogue, emotional investment in the plot, such as for the main character, unknown and present characters.

A flashback is the interruption of a sequential narrative plot to present important events that have happened in the past to present plot points that are difficult to bring into the narrative, such as character traits, events, or themes which may drive the current narrative or to be revealed.

Foreshadowing is often confused with other literary devices:

• A red herring is a hint designed to mislead the audience. Foreshadowing only hints at a possible outcome within the confinement of a narrative and leads readers in the right direction.
• A flashforward is a scene that takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television, or other media. Foreshadowing is sometimes employed through characters' explicitly predicting the future. Flashforwards have scenes shown out of chronological order in a nonlinear narrative, with chronology in an anachronist order, such as to make the reader or the audience think about the climax or reveals.
• Chekhov's gun holds that any element introduced in a story, such as a gun on the wall, should later prove necessary or else be removed, emphasizing tight, economical storytelling.
• Sideshadowing, described by literary critic Gary Morson, is the practice of including scenes that turn out to have no relevance to the plot, which intends to increase the verisimilitude of the fiction because the audience knows that in real life, unlike in novels, most events are in fact inconsequential. The "sense of structurelessness" invites the audience to "interpret and question the events that actually do come to pass."