#plot tag: plot twists

(And why hinges rock.)

Please excuse me while I assign already well-loved terms new meanings for my own benefit. (This is to say, writing terminology means something slightly different or goes by slightly different terms depending on who you ask. Two of the definitions I use here are based ones that stuck with me, while the third is something I pulled right out of my backside because it didn’t quite fit with my acquired definitions of the other two. Other terms and definitions are equally valid; I’m just using these ones until I figure out how to telepathically funnel wordless concepts.)

First let’s get basic: What’s a plot anyway? Tis a bunch of things that happen to move your character toward something. Usually this something is a goal. Win the war. Find the killer. Survive the winter. Get through the wedding. Kill the dragon.

Plots (should) have important scenes within them which propel them along. A full book that’s just a knight walking on a path for twenty-five chapters thinking about killing a dragon and then finally reaching the dragon to do so it boring. A book about a knight facing random trials that have nothing to do with the dragon she’s set out to kill is more interesting then walking. But the most engaging version of this plot would be if each trial she faced was connected to the dragon killing in some way.

We could, if we wanted to, label each of these trials with terms like plot point, a plot twist, or a plot hinge, depending on how they interact with the story as a whole. (Now I have to define what each of these terms mean to me. I set myself up here, didn’t I?)

We probably all know what a plot twist is. A big reveal. A shocking conclusion. A revelation that puts the whole story into a new light. (Luke, I am your father!)

I remember reading somewhere that any coincidence which gets your characters out of trouble is bad, and any coincidence which puts them into trouble is good. While you do have to take this with a grain of salt, there’s still a lot of truth to that saying. 

A more thorough look at coincidences:

Make your coincidences not so coincidental. The best “coincidences” are ones which are foreshadowed in some way. 

An ex who was mentioned briefly in a side comment five chapters ago suddenly running into the protagonist can be jarring to the reader, but an ex randomly showing up after the protagonist spent a conversation sobbing over them the scene before inspires a glorious moment of “oh shit” from the reader. 

In the same manner, a character arriving near the end of the story to brilliantly inspire the plot and character arcs to move forward feels like cheating until you sprinkle hints that the character was always looking to do that very thing, so when the readers reach it, they’re willing to ignore any coincidences in favor of the glee they feel in putting the pieces together.

Characters must (usually) save themselves. Coincidences which allow your characters to avoid taking action and making choices are bad, especially towards the end of the story. 

There are certain methods you can use to get around this, such as very heavy foreshadowing combined with a good portion of the characters using their agency and making character developing choices, or forcing your characters to sacrifice something in order to take advantage of the coincidence, but in general, stay away from any coincidences which get your characters out of trouble.

As an example, in one of my novels the protag and their friends are about to be executed, but two side characters who were foreshadowed on multiple occasions coincidentally choose that moment to show up and kill the executioners. The drawback is that they’re here to save one of the protag’s friends – but to kill the protag. 

Coincidentally up the tension. A coincidence that gets a character in deeper trouble, is a whole lot easier to excuse. If you make the characters have an “oh shit” moment, there’s a higher chance that will pass on to the readers as well. 

Writing Plot Twists.

For a successful plot twist, don’t give the reader so many details that they piece together the plot twist before it happens, but scatter enough information that when the plot twist appears, they have a moment of damn, I should have known; all the signs were there!

Here’s some tips to help you achieve that:

1. Give subtle clues. You don’t want to hit them over your reader’s head! 

Give a strange action without specifying that it’s strange. Have a character mention something odd before the conversation is suddenly drawn away. Put an object someplace it shouldn’t belong, but don’t give the pov character time to think about why it’s there. 

Instead of just planting clues like a reverse sleuth, you can also try creating openings for the reader to notice something is missing. Always try to put both clues and openings in places where they stick out a tiny bit, but could still be rationalized away.

2. Try not to bury your clues under a mount of details. If you give too much superfluous information, it’s unlikely a reader will pick up on half of it. 

Oh the other hand, if you give the sense that all the details mean something specific and the reader just don’t know what a few of them are for yet, then they’ll be more inclined to care about the details, especially if they’re given immediate positive feedback for remembering them.

3. Don’t flat out contradict* the plot twist while trying to obscure it. 

Don’t give the murderer a conformed alibi. Don’t have the wise old magician teach that magic can do anything but reverse death, and then have a character come back from the dead. Don’t claim a piece of world building works a certain way, only to have your plot twist go against it.

The last thing you want is for your reader to reach the plot twist and go, “You jerk! You told me this wasn’t an option! I could never have guessed this! You broke your own canon!”

* The exception to this is having new, better information come up just before or during the plot twist. The main character suddenly receives word that the murder’s alibi has turned out to be false. The character being killed had a piece of the soul of a villain known to split up their soul into parts, and that piece died in their place. Someone uncovers new information showing there have been exceptions to the world building “rule” for centuries.

4. Throw in some red herrings. You certainty don’t need red herrings in order to pull off a good plot twist, but if you’re having trouble hiding your plot twist from the readers, they can work quite nicely.

The vaguer the red herring, the better it generally works. If your world is big or your story complex enough, readers may even create red herrings for themselves by incorrectly combining the clues you set out for *other* plot twists.

5. Edit it later. Whatever you do now, you’ll need to make some adjustments after you get feedback from critiquers or betas. Make sure you keep notes on how and where you hint at your plot twist so you can easily adjust them during the revision stage!