Elliot Kessler

A plot twist is a super fun writing tool that authors can use to quickly create intrigue and keep the audience hooked anywhere in a story. They are fun for the audience, too. Reading a story and knowing what’s about to happen is no fun. But reading a story that you think you know where it’s going when it abruptly turns around is enthralling. You never know where that story will go, making the experience much more fun.

But how does an author create a plot twist? Why were the reveals in “Arrival” and “The Empire Strikes Back” so compelling?

We’ll start with a critical ingredient to any good plot twist: evidence.

(SPOILER WARNING for the films above as well as “Doctor Who.” If you haven’t watched “Arrival” yet, check it out! It is very underappreciated and one of my favorite films. If you haven’t watched “Doctor Who” yet, it is a fun show, and I recommend it to most people. If you haven’t seen “Star Wars” yet, what are you waiting for? Watch it!)

Figure It Out

Planting evidence in a story is primarily seen in mystery stories, but it can be done effectively in any genre. You can plant evidence in two different ways if you have a plot twist. One is to help the audience see the twist before it comes and give subtle clues and hints, like in “Arrival,” when Louise’s daughter makes a clay model of a heptapod, making the audience wonder about the timeline of events. Or you could use evidence to keep the audience from the twist, like in “Star Wars,” when Obi-Wan makes Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader sound like two different people.

Hinting at the plot twist can make rereading your story an enjoyable experience. The audience’s first read will be different from any other read. It is the same with other plot twists, but with this plot twist, the readers can see the evidence everywhere. When they reread your story, the twist seems obvious, and it can be fun.

But hiding evidence in plain sight is challenging. Especially when writing a book. However, it can be done. J. K. Rowling is an expert at hiding evidence in the “Harry Potter” series.

However, it may be easier to lead the reader away from the plot twist by planting false evidence that led the audience’s expectations towards something more cliche and expected. For instance, the twist that Darth Vader is really Luke’s father was surprising because, initially, the relationship between the two characters was a generic hero-versus-villain story. The audience accepted this because it was a regular thing they came across in most other sci-fi and fantasy books and films. The movies also lean into this idea, with Obi-Wan even telling Luke that Darth Vader killed Luke’s father.

This made the twist in “Empire” much more shocking than it would have been without the setup. It was brilliantly done, and we could all learn from it.

Neither of these methods is better than the other. If you want your story to have more of a mystery element, hint at the surprise twist and hide evidence. If you want the twist to be as shocking as possible, lean into cliches and make the audience expect something else before revealing your secret.

A Cheap Gasp

There are plenty of fantastic twists out there but also many bad ones. Take a look at season 12 of “Doctor Who,” for example. I know it has been discussed a lot, and I am late to the party, but it illustrates a point I want to convey.

In the finale episode of season 12, we are given the answer to a mystery set up over the last couple of seasons. There has been the ongoing mystery of a figure known only as the “Timeless Child.” We aren’t told who or what it is until we get to the finale of season 12.

A Gallifreyan explorer found the Timeless Child on an alien world, abandoned. The explorer thought the child had died, but the child regenerated, getting a new body and surviving its fatal wounds. The explorer brings the child back to Gallifrey and experiments on it, forcing it to regenerate over and over until the explorer finally unlocks the secret to the child’s unique ability. The explorer gave the regeneration ability to the other Gallifreyans, creating the Time Lords.

This is interesting, as it adds to the Doctor’s regeneration. It gives the Doctor an interesting dilemma. Should she regenerate even though it is an ability stolen from an innocent child? Does she have the right? It could have made for a neat episode.

But writer Chris Chibnall had other plans. He made the Doctor the Timeless Child, which not only makes the Doctor the equivalent of a god because she cannot die but also undermines her as a character. She has no weakness. When she helps humanity, it looks more like pity than out of the kindness of her heart (or hearts). It only detracts from her character, making this once interesting and beloved character boring.

The twist wasn’t there to make the audience ponder the morality of the Doctor’s situation or give any insight into the Doctor’s character. It was only there to get a cheap, meaningless gasp from the audience. It is pointless.

That is how not to write a plot twist. Do not ever make the twist meaningless. It needs to have a purpose and make the story more interesting. Twists cannot be there only for the shock factor because if they are, there will be no shock factor. It will be a meaningless, ordinary change of events that does not affect anything, whether the story or the characters. Nothing changes, and there is no reason for the twist.

Conclusion

I love a good plot twist, so I hope this helps you write fantastic twists. I cannot wait to read them! If you know a movie or a book with an amazing plot twist, let me know in the comments! But don’t let this article pressure you to write an amazing plot twist. Not every story needs one. But if you do want a plot twist, don’t overthink it. Make sure you have fun, and maybe you will surprise yourself as much as you surprise your readers.

Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day.