PLOT
TWISTS: WHAT EVERY WRITER NEEDS TO KNOW
After struggling for some time with writer’s block on my current
work in progress about an uprising, I jumped ahead to playing with plot
twists. Yes! It’s okay to jump ahead and write what you can.
See more about fragmented
writing here.
I’m not going to reveal my twists, but I will say that I
implanted a red herring. My goal is to have the reader be very angry at the
corrupt villain. This particular villain deserves to be detested, but the real
villain – the powerful deceiver who is pulling all the strings – is not revealed
until well after the mid-point.
Think about some of your favorite movies, and you will surely
get some ideas for plot twists and surprise endings. “Book of Eli,” starring
Denzel Washington, has a fabulous surprise ending. My husband and I pride
ourselves in picking out Hollywood’s plot twists, so we watched the movie
again. We wondered how we could have missed such a vital clue about Eli. You
may have felt the same sense of wonder after M. Night Shyamalan’s “Sixth
Sense.”
“HOW DID I MISS THAT?”
K. M. Weiland writes a fantastic blog. I admire her because she
shares my vision of helping other writers. In her post about writing killer
plot twists, she states that plot twists not only need to be unique and
executed cleverly, they “must also not take away from re-readability.” This is
sound advice for anyone who may want to re-read your book. Your readers
should be asking themselves, “Wow, how did I miss that? I need to go back and
re-read the clues. A link to Weiland’s blog is below.
You can click on a blue button to create a random plot twist by
visiting pantomimepony (link below). It offers ideas like, “The sister marries
the vicar,” or “The social worker unintentionally burns the note, believing it
to be cursed.”
A link to an infographic can be seen by clicking the
“Awesomer” link below. Many of these twists have been done before, and I
wouldn’t advise literally using them, but they are definitely worth a glance
because these pictures can get your brain moving in creative directions. For
instance, one fun twist is the “robot reveal,” (think Schwarzenegger’s
“Terminator”) but a twist you’ll want to avoid is “it was all a dream.”
As a matter of fact, if you are concerned that your twist is
trite, read Huffington Post’s blog (link below). Here, you’ll find taboos such
as: don’t tell us the aunt is really the mother or that Darth is Luke’s father.
I cannot comment on some of this blogger’s pet peeves because I haven’t read
some of the books listed, but I do agree that a twist/surprise ending should
not be, “oh, never mind, that guy’s just crazy.” This kind of ending is in
danger of punching all the teeth out of a story. I do offer this counterpoint:
“Fight Club” pulls it off brilliantly. Read the book.
Writers should especially remember to structure the twist so
that readers do not feel cheated. Sprinkle a bit of foreshadowing, water it
with a few subtle clues, and have fun.
What are some of your favorite plot twists?
Keep writing & keep sharing! – Cronin Detzz
See the link to K. M. Weiland’s plot twist blog at:http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/2013/07/5-ways-to-write-killer-plot-twist.html
Huffington Post’s 7 awful plot twists: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/14/7-awful-plot-twists-were-_n_1148717.html
