# Need advice of Plot twists



## hanidyani (Apr 15, 2009)

Well basically I'm writing a story based on a character his lover and the battle he's sent to fight.

logline:

As a village prepares for battle, as a young couple say goodbye. The battle insures leading to a show down between light and darkness, a child is discovered and new hope rises from the ashes of the fallen village.

______________________________________________________________

 I'm trying to get my brain going as to what kind of twists to throw in, I tried the lets kill the hero off then have him return with honor thing, it seemed to easy to see it coming. 

 Any one know of any good trick to making decent plot twists? 

My problem starts in part 4, he and the bad guy fight, they seemingly kill each other then the scene ends. In the last chapter he returns. 

 Would anyone be willing to have a look and see if you could help at all?

If you would like to see the story I'm referring to its here:

 Part 4: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2148642/

 Part 6: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2148692/


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## Shindo (Apr 15, 2009)

zombies


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## Attaman (Apr 15, 2009)

Kill off the main character at the end of that chapter, put another one in.  If not that, then at least give him some permanent scarring _and_ a crippling / debilitating injury.  Not one that makes him more powerful in the end, but something that will make the rest of the story more challenging for them.

Very few stories feature a debilitating injury that lasts for more than a chapter or two, a part at most.


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## hanidyani (Apr 15, 2009)

Thanks a lot that really helped ^_^ time to go write lol

The main thing with this one I should have added in the original post is that this is a prequel to another story about the main character in this stories son. I can't kill him off without destroying to plot and structure of the main story. But I can give him some permanent scarring, I did mentally but maybe a physical would work better.

 Thanks alot ^_^, wish I had ppl at home to brainstorm with but they are a bunch of dim wits lol.


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## M. LeRenard (Apr 15, 2009)

I don't know if this helps, but every now and then I'll just throw in a plot twist nearly at random in order to speed things along.  I usually sort of plan out my longer works, right, but sometimes I reach a dull spot that takes me weeks and weeks to get through, because it feels like nothing's happening.  Then comes the writer's block, lack of desire, etc., that always seems to slow me down.  So when I get to that low point, I just chuck in a plot twist.  Brings me right out of the funk.  Maybe it screwed up the whole plan I had before, but who cares, right?  At least things are interesting now.
But what are these plot twists, you ask?  Well, it could be anything.  One of the minor characters takes up the hero role.  A tornado comes in and wipes out the bad guy's base, killing him and 80% of his lackeys.  A drunk wanders onto the scene of the final battle and accidentally takes the blow meant for the bad guy.  Whatever.  I mean, all you have stopping you from doing anything is your own inhibition.  You don't do it if you think it sounds too stupid or unlikely.  But if you can find something within the framework of the story, go wild.  You can always rewrite the other parts to make it fit better, if you have to.
So in short, I don't really know any good 'tricks', but you can always try anything and see how well it works.  A twist is something that the reader isn't going to expect, so maybe the best trick is to go with the first weird idea that comes to mind.


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## Smelge (Apr 15, 2009)

Bait and switch.

Make it look like an obvious plot-twist is about to occur, then hit them with some completely unforeseen twist.

Maybe a character has been acting odd, the enemy seems to be getting info leaked to them. Good guy turns around and kills the suspicious character only to find out the real informant is someone unexpected.

Maybe you have a major baddie who is really bad and stuff, he captures one of your weakest good-guys, who then turns around and murders him.

Go wild.


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## hanidyani (Apr 16, 2009)

thanks alot everyone I think I got this thing ironed out.

still kind of new to writing and I simply wanted this story to be a portfolio piece.

 Was reading a lot on how to write and books in gen and they always fell short on how to go about creating good twists. 

 To the word doc. batman!

Thanks for the help ^_^


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## Shindo (Apr 16, 2009)

your welcome


sorry for the pointless post


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## GuRoo (Apr 16, 2009)

If you ever use flashback sequences, you could pull a Second Sight plot-twist.



Spoiler



Basically, the game has you going through flashback sequences every now and then to slowly reveal what has led up to the present...but...when you reach the end of the game, you discover that you had it all wrong. The flashbacks were actually the present, and what you perceived as the present was in reality a possible future. It was laid out for you to have no doubt that they were flashbacks (the character having seizures at times, seemingly the flashbacks), but then they completely turn it around...and strangely, when you stop to think about it, it all makes sense.


 
Crazy stuff.


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## hanidyani (Apr 16, 2009)

Thank you very much I'll try it, I do have parts where I will have to use a flash back or 2 I think I'll play with it a bit as well.


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## TShaw (Apr 19, 2009)

This may be a bit late but to me the best way to pull off a plot twist is to have it planned out in advance. If the story is â€˜coming to youâ€™ as you write just let it flow for now and add the little twists in the edit process. However if you are still in the thinking mode of the story I find it easier to plan the twists backwards. What I mean is at the point I have a general idea of the story the twists and turns actually become part of the planning process for the story. Every time Iâ€™ve done it that way I was able to add little clues along the way that once the twist hit or revelation came along it gave the reader something to have an â€˜Oh that explains everythingâ€™ moment. Kind of hard to do on the fly and pull it off well, so plan the big picture part of your story before you start writing it would be my advice.


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## blackfuredfox (Apr 25, 2009)

TShaw said:


> This may be a bit late but to me the best way to pull off a plot twist is to have it planned out in advance. If the story is â€˜coming to youâ€™ as you write just let it flow for now and add the little twists in the edit process. However if you are still in the thinking mode of the story I find it easier to plan the twists backwards. What I mean is at the point I have a general idea of the story the twists and turns actually become part of the planning process for the story. Every time Iâ€™ve done it that way I was able to add little clues along the way that once the twist hit or revelation came along it gave the reader something to have an â€˜Oh that explains everythingâ€™ moment. Kind of hard to do on the fly and pull it off well, so plan the big picture part of your story before you start writing it would be my advice.



you raise a valid point, doing this has everything ready. but going on a whim could change things for the better. let me describe a plot twist in a story of mine, this guy has for some time known he was a U.S. Marine, after escaping an experimental program and finding something from his past he remembers, he is an agent in the KGB after locating his badge and files on his capture as a POW. so try both and you should get far more different results creating a deeper plot.


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