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writing advice, issue one

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𝐕𝐈 08/16/20
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writing advice, issue one-[IMG=E0H]
[C]
[C]
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[BC]plot twists
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 ¬ plot twist 
[I]          an unexpected develop

plot twists

¬ plot twist

         an unexpected development in a book, film, television programme, etc

That is the plain, simple definition of what a plot twist is. Yet, they seem to be one of the most difficult things to write. Or rather, to write properly and pull off. The key to doing so is understanding the tool, and your story.

First, I will do my own take on the whole „plot twist VS subverting expectations“ dilemma, which had been raging on recently. (I am one of the many who never watched a second of game of Thrones yet knew every little mistake the writers made in the last season through raging fans and essays.) Now, in my mind, a plot twist is a twist that comes from logical conclusions and is prepared beforehand (wether intentionally or unknowingly) by the writer, so that it fits in neatly and logically with the story. Subverting expectations does not have anything to do with the plot itself, but rather by the expectations of the audience which are set by previous works and the logic in the story so far.

To give an example. Having a spy team consisiting of three men and a woman where only the woman can fight well would be subverting expectations. It has nothing to do with the plot (it can come from plot points but unless it’s been prepared and worked on it’s not necessary for the story), and the only reason it is a twist is that the audience expects the men to be able to fight as many, many previous works of fiction always establish the idea that any male character (unless given a specific reason not to) has the ability to fight. A plot twist would be that the double angent from the team of the good guys betrays them and shows that they secrectly worked for the bad guys all along because of x/y/z reason.

What makes them hard to distinguish is that sometimes a development can be both a plot twist and subverting expectations. The key difference is that a plot twist derives purely from the plot, and subverting expectations derives purely from the expectations that the audence has / was given. The second matter happens a lot when widely known tropes are not followed (the rough, tuff guy is the only one able to cook, two characters who always fall into cute moments don’t end up dating, the hero gets knocked out on the final fight and misses the entire climax...). One more thing to consider is that a lot of traditional tropes are slowly being dismantled in modern fiction, so while some things can be considered subverting expectations, the expectations of modern audiences are much wider and less stereotyped than they’ve been. But thanks to decades of said stereotypes, we all still have some subcontious expectations of traditional topes so some subversion will always be made.

(I extremely recommend doing so as we all can agree that the basic plot set up and character usage is way, way too overused and desperately needs some variation.)

Now, plot twists can be divided into two types. Main plot twists, and subplot twists. The latter isn’t often noticed as much of a twist as it doesn’t affect the plot too much, but it is still a twist nevertheless and it’s easier to work with thanks to the looser nature of subplots. I will first explore this type, then the traditional plot twist.

writing advice, issue one-[IMG=E0H]
[C]
[C]
[C]
[BC]plot twists
[C]
[C]
[C]
 ¬ plot twist 
[I]          an unexpected develop

Subplot twists

Those are any plot twists of, well, subplots. Before I give any examples I will talk a bit about the practicality.

They are a good way to keep your reader interested through simple tricks, playing with tropes, setting expectations while possibly giving away mild foreshadowing and then changing the expected outcome and you have a pretty, well done twist in your story without needing to affect it too much. They are a good way to keep it dynamic, without the reader feeling bored or like they can predict every single plot detail. They can also keep things in universe interesing and realistic, as not everything is how it seems, and the characers will face unexpected situations.

Subplot twists are easiest divided into types by genre. Comedy (a character with whom the main character struggled to communicate in a foreign language turns out to have known the mcs native language all along), romance (the love interest of the main character turns out to be gay/aro and possibly have a significant other; note that it works best with a straight love interest because heteronormativity), tradgedy (the sibling the mc wanted to visit during the story turns out to be deceased), action perhaps (the person helping the mc turns out to be a spy and a fight breaks loose) etc.

Note that every single one of those can be turned into a plot twist for the main plot, it just depends how much importance that plot point is given. Now one could take it and turn it into the main twist, but the reason that would hardly work inside a story is because firstly you would have to rearrange the plot/subplots, and secondly you might change the entire genre through that (writing a thriller novel with a romantic subplot twist). Subplot twists aren’t necessary in the story, but they are easy to work into it and some variation would give the reader some food for thought and amusement, and keep their attention. If you foreshadow the subplot twist with one or two clues, the reader might even have something to look foward to during rereading.

writing advice, issue one-[IMG=E0H]
[C]
[C]
[C]
[BC]plot twists
[C]
[C]
[C]
 ¬ plot twist 
[I]          an unexpected develop

Plot twists of the main plot

Now, the big, infamous tool of literature. Plot twists. Before we dive into it I believe asking the question of why could be useful.

The reasons can vary, but mostly are the wish to keep your story interesting and surprise your audience. Those are very valid reasons, but know that plot twists are not the only option. New revelations, new characters, new places, all those can work as well. Not to say that a plot twist must be avoided, not at all. But if you struggle with incorporating a plot twist and the only reason you wish to do so is to surprise and keep your audience interested, know that there are aternatives. In order to make a plot twist work and a good one, it NEEDS to come natural from the plot. That means that it needs to work with the plot before it, to still have all the character actions make sense, and to work with the logic of the world you’ve created (or the real world in realistic fiction. Don’t bring a character back if they supposedly died by falling fifty meter from a building. Drop them ten meter down onto a supposed high way which happened to be empty at the moment).

Now, there are two types of plot twists. Those that the audience sees coming but not the characters, and those which noone sees coming and the audience reacts with „HOW DIDN’T I SEE THIS COMING“.

Those can be either good or bad plot twists. The first would be the character being too oblivious to the twist, and the reader will feel like the characters are way too dumb/naive and they might feel stupid for investing their emotions into the piece when everyone is an innocent imbecile. The latter would be when the writer pulls a plot twist out of their ass and the reader feels utterly betrayed for investing their emotions into the piece. (See the huge backlash for „Game of Thrones.“ Learn from their mistakes and do not, do not pull a plot twist out of your ass just for the sake of a twist.)

Now, how do I write one, how the other?

Simple answer: you don’t. Which one of the two your twist will be depends on the story, the genre, the characters, the audience, their expectations, the tropes you use and/or subvert, the foreshadowing you use, the type of it, the amount, simply too many variables as that you can actively choose which type you will write. Even then, the same twist might be one type to me, and another to you, as we have different perspectives, expectations and notice different things in the plot. So, your job as the writer is to write a /good/ twist. Afterwards the twist will sort itself into one of the two categories.

Now, why did I mention them then? Simple. Think of one twist of category A, and one twist of category B. Now, what would be extremely useful is disecting them, and asking the questions of

- when did I notice it? Did I see it coming? Why yes / why not?

- does it make sense? Why?

- does it affect my view on the earlier plot? How much?

- what makes it a twist?

- where tropes subverted / twisted? If yes, which?

- was there foreshadowing? Did I notice it? In which reading did I notice it, first, second, or later?

All those questions can help you figure out what tools make a good twist, and what makes it type A or type B. Since plot twists depend a lot on the story you write, reading a lot of them helps you broaden your perspective and pick up on patterns. Usually, if you change those patterns you already have a plot twist.

The main question still stays; how do I write a good plot twist? Noone knows except the muses and the writing gods to which we give blood sacrfices and our hours of sleep in order to gain snippets of their knowledge, but I will go ahead and dare to give you some tips and share my knowledge that I’ve gathered so far.

There are two ways of approaching them. Relying on the plot, or on the expectations.

The easier one is to rely on expectations. This type of twist is extremely close to subverting expectations, but it is a twist nevertheless if it affects the plot. When you write your story, you will use some sort of trope. If you subvert the trope, so that it is different than from what a reader expects, and that affects the main plot, you have yourself a twist.

Example: (spoiler free)

Imagine a cop buddy thriller movie. Cop A and Cop B are chasing some criminals, the mafia, a unicorn, whatever. Towards the climax, A and B figure out the unicorn- I meant the criminals hiding place, and wish to sneak in and force the main bad guy to surrender. In the process through shenanigans A’s significant other, presumably girlfriend, C, ends up with them. She is not a police officer and has no training. A and B tell her to hide and go on their way.

Familiar enough, is it? If we go by the logic of any cop buddy movie (*cough*Bad boys does it in every damn movie*cough*) C would be found and kidnapped, held hostage, forcing A and B for a high risk, high stake second attempt.

Using this to our favor, we can make a simple twist by instead having A (or B, doesn’t matter much) kidnapped and held hostage, while C and B have to save A. To justify that, let them have limited time and a reason why A can’t flee.

It’s a subversion, it’s certainly not what is expected. And since it changes the initial plan of A and B massively it is also a plot twists, it shifts the plot into a complitely unexpected direction. It also allows for a /lot/ of new dynamics and character development.  A talks with the enemy and will probably try to escape or be thinking of a plan, B panics over having to protect C and save A, C wishes to help and manages to convince B, thus showing a knew side of their character.

The benefits to this type of plot twist are immense, a lot of new and interesting dynamics and situations which lead to character development. And writing such twist is fairly easy, you accidently / intentionally followed a trope? Subvert it and make it (more) interesting.

Now, the actual plot twist. The one deriving purely from the plot. Of course the first thing is to know your plot. My advice is don’t think about the twist at first, write a rough plot idea, and development. Then take the part where you wish to insert the twist (recommended: around the climax), and see how you can change the course of the plot by changing something that came before that part.

Now to explain this more profusely, see what story you wish to write, the type, genre, characters, the motivations. Being detailed about the start of the story might help you later on. Write everything down, and write a vague end that would com naturally from what you have set up so far. This ending you are going towards will be ending1. It is an ending coming logically from all the plot points and character motivations. Now choose at which part you wish to put your twist.

Putting it at the beginning probably isn’t a smart idea. You won’t have much time to set something up, and it might feel sudden and jarring. Unless you have a strong beginning and are able to change the course somewhat naturally or are writing something very stereotypical / known, it is better not to put your twist this early.

A twist at the very end will probably stay unresolved, and result in a cliffhanger ending with a knew revelation. Unless you plan on writing a sequel or have strong reasons for such end, I don’t advise it. It can leave your reader feel cheated, betrayed, because a sudden twist at the end is really hard to naturally resolve in the short time you have left, and if it isn’t wrapped up in some sort of way (be it just the reaction and implied course of action of your characters) this ending can end up unresolved and broken instead of open.

A twist in the middle of your story is something that will affect the climax. It will lead to a climax different than the one expected / anticipated so far. Say a sudden betrayal, death, new information. It can be prompted both by internal and external reasons. A characters motivation changing, or a character showing their true motivation. Or external, new place, new weather, new info. Putting your twist into this part of the story will lead to a climax that wasn’t possible before the twist, and thus allows multiple more endings that weren’t an option before, or it turns several previously possible / expected endings impossible.

A twist at the climax of your story affects largely your ending. It opens completely new endings, and it will affect the latter half of your climax. Sometimes it will also open up the path to a second climax. It makes an already extremely dynamic story part even more interesting and unexpected, and it allows for a new course of what seems to be a set story.

This is setting. Once you have chosen that, it is onto deciding what will allow your twist to happen. It can be internal or external. External reasons are easy to manufacture. Something new arrives, a character, information, circumstance. Internal ones are a bit trickier. They depend on the characters. Does the larger motivator of a character make them do something unexpected? Does a character have a secret? My advice is to make your twist tie back to an internal reason in some way. It makes everything a lot more believable and natural, something happening by random in fiction feels almost wrong. Fiction is usually a lot more coordinated than reality, so everthing, even seemingly random situations, should tie back to some logic / reasoning in some way.

Working back into your story, the logic and motivations and finding one where changing something leads to a different outcome is a good way of making your twist work. Giving a character a different motivation that initially lines up with the first one or swapping your initial villain with a initial good guy and seeing if that does anything make for good twists. Be aware that in doing so you will lose your initial outline for the rest of the story, but if you do that, it means your twist worked.

You are pretty much left with a chunk of plot which leads to what you initially planned, and with the new layer you added you built everything up for a plot twist once these layers are no longer hidden. Of course that isn’t the only way to make a plot twist, sometimes we have the idea of a twist and then work the plot around that. But this is a good way to start off if you don’t have an idea or struggle making twists work. Knowing what you want to twist is sometimes the biggest question to answer.

So, tl;dr

Write the beginning of a story that leads to ending1, write a rough outline of ending one. You have now, in a visual manner

setup1 -> plot1 -> ending1

Now put in some new info, swap the motivations of characters, swap your main villain and good guys, play around with changes. When you find a change that works logically with setup1, but then is revealed during plot1, and leads to ending2, you got yourself a twist. So, now it is

setup1 -> plot1 -> twist -> ending2

The reason why this should work is that your beginning now works for 2 stories, your initial story and your after twist story. But during the first reading the reader only sees the information you have given in your initial story, and they don’t know the deeper layers. And once they do know the deeper layers, they work with the story so far because they were built around it. Note that this only works when writing a story from scratch, with the intention of a plot twist. But even if you do have a story set and wish for a plot twist while keeping a certain ending / climax, this could help you see how to add more layers that have to be exposed or they will stay hidden.

I talked way too long about this but no matter where you put your twist, what you twist, what sort of twist you have, how largely it affects the plot, or anything else, these are the main points you need to consider

1. Your twist needs to come from a natural, logical place and course of action

2. Your twist must work in the context of the previous & current plot points

3. Your twist must only change the context of the actions done by your characters previous to the twist, it must keep them logical and in character

4. Your twist must have a in-story reason that is logical and keeps your characters consistent, it mustn’t turn your characters actions into inconsistent and non-sensical doings

Afterwards, there are a few more tips I would like to give when it comes to the details of making a plot twist „smart“, making it work. And that is foreshadowing.

writing advice, issue one-[IMG=E0H]
[C]
[C]
[C]
[BC]plot twists
[C]
[C]
[C]
 ¬ plot twist 
[I]          an unexpected develop

Foreshadowing

¬ foreshadow

          to be a warning or indication of (a future event)

So foreshadowing is hinting at what is to come. This helps both for leaving your reader clues so that they can figure things our themselves, and that they can find interesting details during rereading. Those clues are usually very subtle, and in order to be subtle they need to work both in the context of your initial plot and the twist itself. This way something seeming unimportant can be simultaniously a major clue to what is to come. You can do this by sprinkling hints during rewriting or by adding context which makes one action already written serve two different reasons, one it appears to have before the twist and the one it actually has, revealed through the twist.

Foreshadowing is not necessary, but it allows your reader to have the chance to figure things out, and it gives them a reason to reread your story and makes rereading it a lot more interesting. Foreshadowing is most often done through the context of a characters actions. Is your mentor smirking them being proud or malitious? Is your boyfriend asking for your adress a gesture indicating a pleasent surprise or a dangerous intent? Does that hidden drawer in your moms room contain love letters ora murder confession?

You can choose how big the clues you leave are, and where to leave them. You can leave them so subtle it takes five readings to notice it, or one so massive that the reader can immediately piece together all the pieces of your twist. It’s on you to decide, just make sure that it isn’t too obvious to the characters, because a clue too in-your-face which goes unnoticed by the character and thus has massive consequences for them can make the reader feel like they invested their time and emotions into some ombeciles. If you do choose to have a big clue, have your characters grow suspicious, or explain why they aren’t.

Plot twists can be a great way to add depth and layers to your work, and surprise both your characters and audience. It’s not necessary for a good, interesting and compelling story, but a lovely accessory to make it more engaging. Overall, just do your best, have logic, and give in monthly blood sacrfices to the muse of your choice. Good luck!

Likes (39)
Comments (9)

Likes (39)

Like 39

Comments (9)

Love this post ! Lots of great advice which you explained very well. I’ll definitely refer back to this when planning my next twist. Great job !

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2 Reply 08/16/20

Holy writing Gods! I knew this post would be informative, but seriously, Scath, this was really freaking good!

You have a way of explaining complicated concepts in a very simple, easy to digest way, and the simple but pretty aesthetic, plus the organization, definitely helped.

I love the small examples too. They’re very important for writing advice. Although, and this is just my opinion, I often find it helps even more to have a big example (ergo an example of a story that did these concepts right) to pull from throughout the advice. I always feel it easier to understand when essays focus on one story or story line, and point out how they used x and y and z well.

But, hey, that’s just me! And you really did a great job explaining everything. I didn’t get lost at all. In fact, Im going to save this post for future reference when I need to do a twist, ‘cause I have a lot of problems with plot related stuff like this :sweat_smile:

Great job Scath! This is super valuable and well written advice :two_hearts: Keep them coming :grin:

And don’t forget your daily blood sacrifice to the writing Gods XD

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2 Reply 08/16/20

I'm super happy that it worked out!

Thank you for your :smile: It helps to know what I did right here

I've been thinking about adding examples from stories but I didn't want to spoil anything. Most advice about plot twists has tons of spoilers and I wanted to make one without any at all

It's an honor to know you saved my post :0 I'm happy to hear it helps!!

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2 Reply 08/16/20

Reply to: 𝔰𝔠𝔞𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔠𝔥

Oooh, that’s right. I didn’t think about the spoilers 🤔 But I guess if you take from a classic it can be excused? I mean, just as an example, I’m pretty sure everyone knows how certain stories like Lord of the Rings, Titanic, Star Wars, etc. end XD You go into these stories already knowing the spoilers.

Or you could just take a bigger story line (original or derivative or from a story but without saying the name) and use that throughout the advice? Just spit balling ideas here. But I already really like what you did :heart:

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2 Reply 08/16/20

*le gasp*

My darling, the effort and dedication! The aesthetic! The post looks amazing, and everything is incredibly well said! Magnificent, I look forward to more :D

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3 Reply 08/16/20

Thank you!! And more is yet to come :blush: :green_heart:

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3 Reply 08/16/20
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