The Story Corner » Discussions
Writers Discuss - Plot Twists (#4)
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Can I suggest a future topic that's specific to our form / media here? Chapter length.
Long story chapters here range from mine, where my 'Publish' finger starts to twitch as soon as the Word Count reaches 500 - to Lissette's (or 'The Tamriel Tolstoy' as I like to think of her) which are a tiny bit longer - and everything in between.
What are the relative merits of long, medium, or short chapters? Does it matter? What about the affect on posting frequency? (Maybe that's another topic).
Another topic could be: narrative tenses / viewpoints. For instance I write in 1st person present tense - which tbh I've found hard, & is a bit restrictive; but also fun. There's also "Eye of God", character viewpoint, & others I expect I don't know about.
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I think this is more up to the writer than anything else. Personally, I like longer chapters. My early ones were usually around 2000 words long, but they've since started averaging double that.
It depends on how much you feel you need to write.
Tense and viewpoints might make a good topic. I've touched on that one several times myself. I'll consider it.
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*nervous chuckle* I realized I suggested this, yet I completely disregarded the fact that I haven't the slightest idea how to describe it.
Unleash the wall of text.
What is a plot twist?
In essence, a plot twist is somewhat self-explanatory. It is the unexpected happening in a plot, where the reader exclaims in surprise over what happened; or, that is at least what a good plot twist does.
What makes a good plot twist?
Have you ever read a book where you predict nearly every notion and happening in the story? Usually, you are left with a sense of discouragement or betrayal. You expected something brilliant, and you received something hardly worth the hushed applause of a polite British crowd. That is the definition of a poor plot twist.
In contrast, a good plot twist hooks the reader, forces them to guess and predict at every turn, and despair when they realize their assumptions fell short to the glory of the truth. A good plot twist leaves the reader pleasantly surprised, or otherwise utterly astounded/shocked/horrified at the turn of events. As Okan explained, you want the reader to wonder how they missed the twist, when it seemed to be right in front of their face.
Plot twists, in essence, must be unexpected. Otherwise, they fail their own definition and cease to exist. And good ones strike you heavily. They are painful, agonizing occurrences in a plot that leave you staring at your ceiling at night, wishing it had been different but realizing it wouldn't be right if it was different.
How do you come up with good plot twists?
Picking up a pen and writing down words does not make you an author, if I may be psychological for a moment. You must harbor a semi-consciousness--usually developed after reading an excessive amount of books--to know what is good or interesting in a story, and what is not. One needs to know, simply through unconscious recognition, how to surprise your readers. One needs to know, after reading a woeful amount of terrible stories, what does not surprise your readers.
In truth, it's natural to conjure a plot, and the twist that is needed for it, if you truly have the gift of writing--or, in my case, an extensive knowledge of books. Sometimes, you know how to surprise your readers at the start of your writing. At other times, it takes you several drafts to absorb the story fully, and then decide what place is best to touch your reader emotionally.
Execution of the twist is key. If your vocabulary is bland, boring, or sometimes too descriptive, the reader is lost, and the twist's momentum has fallen. For example, if your twist is the death of the main character, you set the scene, execute it (and the character), deciding if its pace should be fast or slow. Nary is it the same pace as rest of the story.
Normally, I'll describe items that wouldn't be so interesting, say... floorboards. Floor boards aren't interesting.
Unless they are pelted with blood and rattle in an unruly fashion.
Sometimes saying, "He died", seems far too frank, and doesn't hit me hard emotionally. Describe everything around the character, so the reader can fill in the blanks themselves, cruelly giving them time to absorb everything. Of course, there are multiple ways to execute a plot twist, but this is simply one of the ways I do it.
Bonus Question: What are some examples of plot twists you liked (or disliked) in stories?
In all of its oddities, I am a Star Wars fan, specifically of the animated series of the Clone Wars. Its arcs have struck too many emotional cords inside of me to ignore, but there is one that hit me especially hard.
In the fifth (?) season, there was an arc known as the Umbra Arc, and was perhaps the darkest of episodes in at least its themes. In a short synopsis, Skywalker relinquishes his command of his clones in order to address "Jedi business", leaving a lone General Krell to oversee his soldiers. Krell was an ambitious, cruel, and nearly tyrannical man that nearly every one despised. My mind was already set on him being the villain, which makes the twist so beautiful.
After a couple episodes of casualties, unrelenting clones, and heaps of psychological battles of the famed Captain Rex, the clones reluctantly answer to one last order from Krell, who informs them that the enemy has prepared an ambush for them. The enemy is equipped with the clones' armor, according to his intel.
Everyone in the audience, naturally, had no intention of taking Krell's word for it. But the twist hit each of us too hard to expect. Rex and his clones dutifully encounter the enemy, gunning them down, cannons unleashing their tirade. Then, in the heat of battle, Rex finds the body of the enemy, helmet slightly disarrayed, to expose a familiar patch of skin. He removes the helmet to uncover that the enemy are his brothers.
The entire squadron was shooting down their own men.
Krell had turned his men against each other.
The notion was so horrific, so surprising, that I paused to watch it over and over again. I assumed Krell as cruel, aye, but I had never considered him to be so... dark. I was so alarmed that I didn't see it coming.
That plot twist was particularly juicy.
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