I want to include some foresight after something occurs in the plot that can have multiple meanings to give foreshadowing or just some extra information for the reader. Since first-person is being narrated later in real time I had a few ideas, mainly utilizing the word afterwards, "I remember thinking afterwards" for example, "Mum must have asked Darius a hundred times if she was sure he was managing okay on his own, whether there was anything he needed for Jonah– as if they had anything spare they could have given him. " "I was glad I had warned Darius about how broke they were. He said no, gracefully and with conviction. " "It was only afterwards I thought to ask if it was the truth." Any other ways to convey foresight would be greatly appreciated.
Don't show it at the time. By it's nature, you don't have hindsight at the time, and if you're in first person present then you want to focus on getting inside the character's head. If you want to show hindsight, show it when it occurs to the character.
not least because they are in past tense ... present tense would say I am glad I had warned Darius about how broke they were. He says no, gracefully and with conviction.
Indeed, although I suppose the first and third could be alluding to a flashback. To the OP: Also, the use of the word "afterwards" doesn't fit in with a present tense real-time narrative. No one ever says "Afterwards" in relation to what they are doing in the here and now. It could be used in past (afterwards, I went) or future (afterwards, I will go) tenses, but not present.
You've definitely written this in past tense, which is the way 99.9% of first person narratives are written and for good reason. Not that present tense can't work. I'm a big fan of Chuck Palahniuk. There are several ways to set up future events in FP PT, which seems to be what you're doing with "afterwards." most are variations on the same theme. You can say, "Little did I know at the time..." or "I would soon find out..." or "I could not have been more wrong." There are also little omniscient cheats: "I didn't know at the time, but on the other side of town..." These examples all rely on the narrator having experienced the entire story and narrating from a future date when all is known. There's a name for that, but I forget. The other option in first person is to keep things intimate and only portray what's happening around the MC at the time. Again, there's a name for it I don't remember off hand. That's as close to present tense as most authors are willing to go. You trade future knowledge for immediacy. The latter keeps the reader in the moment. The former allows you to explain things that the MC wouldn't know. If you really want to write this in present tense, there's little you can do to show future or simultaneous events outside the scope of the MC's immediate experience (barring psychic abilities.) This doesn't mean you can't use foreshadowing. Foreshadowing would work the way it always does. Elements are introduced that the MC doesn't recognize as portents.
Well, the idea is to limit the information the reader has access to. In First Person, not only are you limited to only what the narrator experiences, but those experiences are themselves just the narrator's interpretation of the events, which may be subjective. This can make First Person narration sorta inherently unreliable. For example, if the narration portrays a character as unlikable or suspicious, then perhaps they really are or perhaps the narrator is just paranoid and biased to think about that person that way. So, it may be necessary to read between the lines.
I'm an idiot. I meant present tense, not first person. I write in first person a lot, but never present tense.
When you made the choice to write in a very personal form of present tense, you placed limits on what you could reveal and how. That particular set of constrains is intended to keep the reader locked into what the narrator perceives and knows to focus on how the narrator's beliefs and mannero fthinking evolves throiugh the events. But you trade away foreknowledge, and knowledge of events not yet available to the narrator character, in that choice. This is why you must carefully consider your point of view and narrative style before you begin the writing process. Only place restrictions like that if you are gaining a substantive advantage to your message by doing so.
Oh, that. Yeah, I don't really get it either. I remember reading an online article about it at some point but I don't actually recall the arguments in favor of using it. Which probably means I didn't agree with them, or that I didn't find them useful for my style. What I do know is that present tense makes it much harder to manipulate time within the narrative. Because, like, things that have happened can have happened at any point in the past. Whereas present tense is sorta locked in the now and has to stay that way.
First person present's hard and quite a compromise for sure. You're making life difficult if you impose this on yourself as a rule. Break it—none of us are permanently in the thrall of our experience anyway. We all have our downtime—we flit from here and now to there and then, then off to the maybes as a matter of course. Choose moments in your writing, or even micro-moments when maintaining pace/tension is necessary, of reflection, of processing (and planning too), for your character. Then use them wisely to drive the plot/provide backdrop/provide anticipation. < Too many of introspective kind mind, and a reader will judge you to have picked wrong POV. Grandmother sucking eggs bit now: Useful too are interactions with other characters, use news coming in, use gossip, eavesdropping... use stolen journals to channel the wider story through your leading character's senses.
I agree with the sentiments of others that past tense would serve your story better. Also, when writing first person in the past tense, regret of the narrator is SUCH a strong device to use. For instance, "You'll be fine," I told him, despite my worries. If I only knew how he'd really be, I'd have bit my tongue right off. It lets the reader know something big is coming, and does some characterization to the narrator as well.
