How To Write a Good Plot Twist
If you’ve ever been into a great book, absorbed into the story, and bam plot twist. Suddenly, you’re hooked deeper, you can’t put the book down, and you realize all the small clues you missed. ‘How did I not see this coming?’ you might think to yourself as everything begins to make sense and fall into place. You finish the book, amazed at the twist that changed everything.
Have you ever been into a great book and suddenly bam plot twist. And, suddenly, you’re confused. ‘Where did this come from?’ you ask yourself. ‘This doesn’t make any sense.’ You are more lost than ever and you begin to lose interest in the story. As you begrudgingly finish the book, you are left disappointed and frustrated.
That’s the difference between a good plot twist and a bad one. A good plot twist leaves you gasping in awe at the sudden change in the story. A bad plot twist leaves you with immense disappointment. And, as a writer, a bad plot twist is to be avoided at all costs.
But, what about the plot twists leads to these opposite reactions? And, how as writers can we ensure we leave readers gasping in awe rather than frowning in disappointment?
Elements of a Good Plot Twist
In all of the stories I’ve read the best plot twists that have stuck with me had a few things in common. Firstly, they are unexpected and surprising. Also, they are foreshadowed but masked with misdirection. So, let’s take a look at how you can incorporate these elements into your writing.
Good Plot Twists are Unexpected
Have you ever started reading a story only to immediately guess exactly what happens? You hope it will be different by the end—that it won’t end the way you expect—but it ends exactly as expected. The disappointment is immense.
Good plot twists are unexpected, often with twists and turns along the way. Readers may be able to guess what happens, but they are thrown off and unsure how the story will play out. The trick is not to have readers unable to guess correctly but to have multiple possibilities they often fail to guess the right one.
To gauge how guessable your plot is, get some feedback from friends. Have a few people read the first few chapters and ask them what they think will happen. If most or all of them guess the ending—it’s too predictable.
Include Foreshadowing
Though foreshadowing is not always necessary (i.e. Fight Club), it is often good to incorporate. Good foreshadowing should be sprinkled carefully throughout the story in a way that it doesn’t seem important in the moment. Readers shouldn’t be able to spot the foreshadowing during their first read. Once they reach the twist, those little, seemingly unimportant, moments will become obvious.
To better prepare to properly incorporate foreshadowing, it’s good to know the twist before you begin writing your story. Again, this is not always necessary, but it is incredibly helpful. When you plan out the twist ahead of time, you can weave in small hints as you work your way back from the twist reveal.
Surprising, But Logical
Even though your plot twist should be a surprise to readers, it should still make sense. If the twist is irrelevant to the story or doesn’t make sense readers will be disappointed. If you were a fan of Pretty Little Liars, you know how disappointing bad plot twists can be. I remember that being my favorite show as a teen, and when it ended, the plot twist was beyond disappointing. Fans were upset because the twist didn’t make sense and didn’t fit with any previous clues. It was a surprise for sure—just not a good one.
Ensure your twist fits with the story. Try to avoid adding new characters at the end or making the twist dismiss the rest of the story.
Use What the Audience Doesn’t Know
The key to a good plot twist is misdirection. This can be tricky to incorporate into a story, but a solid tip is to use what the audience doesn’t know against them. When writing a novel, you know absolutely everything about the story, but readers don’t. Think about what your audience doesn’t know and how you can use that to misguide them to a conclusion.
For example, a character in your story may seem like a good person to the reader, but you know their backstory is dark and drives them to be bad. Because the audience is unaware of their dark past, they never suspect they are the villain. An element of foreshadowing you could include may be the character briefly talking about having a rough childhood in passing.
So, when crafting your plot twist, think about who the audience is most likely to suspect. You can use them as a red herring to throw off the readers.
What To Avoid
- plot holes
- out of the blue twist
- twist doesn’t make sense
- too many plot twists (can be overwhelming)
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