| name | foreshadowing-placement |
| description | Load when WriterAgent finishes a chapter draft or is planning a chapter that should set up later payoffs. Use to embed plant-able details (objects, gestures, line drops) for ch+2 or later, and to verify earlier plants get acknowledged. Skip for the very first chapter (no prior plants exist) and for pure dialogue scenes with no narrative scaffolding. |
Foreshadowing Placement
Use this skill to plant future payoffs without announcing them.
Plant Types
- Object: a tool, gift, document, wound, habit, or place that can matter later.
- Gesture: a repeated behavior that later changes meaning.
- Line drop: a casual sentence that becomes relevant after new information.
- Missing detail: something absent that the reader can later reinterpret.
- Open question echo: a small reminder of an unresolved StoryBible question.
Placement Rules
- Embed the plant inside active behavior, dialogue, or environment.
- Do not explain its future importance.
- Keep it useful in the current scene even if the later payoff never happens.
- Prefer ch+2 or later payoffs; immediate setup-payoff often feels mechanical.
Chapter-End Check
After drafting, ask:
- Is there one detail here that can return later under pressure?
- Does StoryBible
## Open Questions contain something this chapter can quietly prepare?
- Did this chapter acknowledge any earlier plant that should not be forgotten?
Avoid
- Ominous author commentary.
- Too many plants in one chapter.
- Planting new mysteries during a climax that should be paying off old ones.
