on Fiction University:

Hints are great, but be wary of making it too obvious what’s going to happen in your novel.

If you’ve ever watched a TV show or movie and heard a random stranger say something like, “Well now, we haven’t use that road since a big old sinkhole opened up ten years ago,” you’ve stumbled upon a telegraphed clue. You know that sinkhole is totally where the hero is going to lead the horrible monster or bad guy chasing him at the climax—and he does.

Kinda takes all the fun out of it, right?

While foreshadowing is a wonderful tool that can heighten tension and make the reader eager to know what will happen, telegraphing steals all the tension and takes the mystery out of those hints.

It shines a light on the things you’re actually trying to be subtle about. It’s like foreshadowing gone too far.

You’d think expecting the things that get telegraphed would actually raise the anticipation factor. It makes sense from a story standpoint that the reader can see something coming and has time to wonder when it might occur.

But unpredictability is what keeps a reader reading. The uncertainty of how something will play out, what a character will do, how they’ll solve a problem. Knowing what will happen makes the story feel predictable, so instead of wondering, readers are waiting.