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I have a conundrum. In a short web novel I'm writing, some of my foreshadowing was more blatant than I expected. My readers immediately picked up on it and were able to extrapolate an extremely important future plot point with startling accuracy. This is a problem since my story partially depends on mystery.

My main concern is that readers will be able to find out more and potentially undermine some of the story mystery before I can reveal it within the story. However, I also understand that this is completely expected for a reader. As an inexperienced author trying her hand at mystery, I'm not too sure what to do here. For now, I'm just letting readers theorize without steering them away or altering my overall narrative. Could I do more?

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Foreshadowing is not used in a mystery to lead towards the final resolution of the mystery. Foreshadowing is used in novels to make unexpected events appear more plausible instead of random.

In a mystery, what you need to do is plant clues (or evidence) that point both at the final resolution (e.g. the murderer) and at the same time at one or more other possible outcomes (e.g. other suspects). You keep the clues ambivalent until the very end, where the final clue brings it all together and exludes all the other outcomes that, before that final clue, had been possible. You also plant false clues that actually aren't clues at all but only appear as if they were, while in reality they are there only accidentally and are not related to the mystery at all.

In short, you do not foreshadow the resolution, instead you distract and confuse the reader with both inconclusive as well as misleading clues.

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