Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 523 Location: Upstate New York
Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 1:18 pm
Foreshadowing is the hint of things to come. It might not quite be a "flash forward", but it is a look ahead at future events. It's also a standard literary technique that's been around for quite a while. Shakespeare (among others) used it.
Then there are premonitions. You could have a story about a psychic who has visions of future events. These episodes could definitely be scenes that "flash forward".
Then you have time travel. When time travel is thrown into the mix, past, present, and future are almost meaningless. With time travel you can show events in the future or in the past anywhere in the narrative.
Personally, I would be careful jumping around chronologically in a narrative, unless there is some plot device that allows such time manipulation. You don't want it to get so convoluted that the reader can't follow the events. I'm not saying it can't be done (never say never), but I am saying that it should make sense to the reader. _________________ "I'm going to do what the warriors of old did. I'm going to recite poetry!"
Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 418 Location: Minnesota
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 2:27 pm
I think that people see the future as a shifting sand. Something that is not written in stone. Each decision that is made alters the future. Thus, a flash forward would appear to be problematic to most people's conception of time.
In the "Restaurant at the End of the Universe" Douglas Adams humorously (sorry humourously) looks at what a flash forward would be like. This book also explores all of the problems of considering time in this manner. What tense of verb would you use? _________________ Douglas E. Gogerty
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Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 523 Location: Upstate New York
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 7:29 pm
Yes, the future may be mutable and shifting. However, you can have a glimpse of what things may be like if the timeline stays on a certain course.. This has been done on Doctor Who.
I remember, in "The Pyramids of Mars", the fourth Doctor showed Sarah Jane what 1980 would be like if Sutekh was freed. _________________ "I'm going to do what the warriors of old did. I'm going to recite poetry!"
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