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I love plot twists. Mistaken identities, sneaky plans, sleight of hand—it’s all

grand. Nothing makes me happier than a story that pulls the rug out from under

me and shows me that my perception of the story up to that point is nowhere

near as cool as the reality. But, by the same token, nothing annoys me more

than a story that fools me and then laughs at me—or, worse, thinks it’s fooled

me when, really, it’s only bored me.

Plot twists can bring a whole new dimension to your story. But done with lessfinesse than not, they can also submarine the whole thing. Today, let’s take a

look at what is required to pull off a delightful plot twist.

I’m going to be discussing several stories with trick endings (or at least big

reveals, so if you aren’t familiar with the plots of the following titles, be warned,

there be spoilers ahead! I’m going to talking about Bandits, The Black Prism,

Beyond the Shadows, The Brothers Bloom, The Empire Strikes Back , Ender’s

Game, The Illusionist , The Prestige, and The Sting.

1. Plot twists must be unique

The requirement of any good plot twist is that it must have a reasonable shot at

surprising readers. That’s kind of the point, right? If readers figure it out ahead

of time, they’re not going to be surprised. This means you can’t pull the same

old gag and expect readers to blithely fall for it. When Barry Levinson’s Bandits

reaches its climax with the two best friend main characters apparently killing

each other during a bank hold-up, I didn’t buy it. Going into that scene, I had

already figured out this was just a poor man’s The Sting. Yawn.

2. Plot twists must be executed cleverly

Again, the point is to catch readers off guard. In order to do that, you have to

properly set up the twist. You have to foreshadow it just enough to make it all

make sense after the payoff. But you can’t tip your hand too broadly—or readers

will figure it out. Another twist I saw coming was that found in Neil Burger’s The

Illusionist . After all, the main character is a magician. What else are readers to

expect but a magic trick ?

5 Ways to Write a Killer Plot Twist

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In comparison, Rian Johnson’s The Brothers Bloom, about a pair of con artists,

could easily have inspired the same hyper-awareness. But the twist in its ending

was so perfectly foreshadowed and so expertly executed that I almost didn’t

believe it even after I’d seen the proof to back it up.

3. Plot twists must advance the plot

Plot twists must be about more than fooling readers. There has to be a point to

it all. Why is this deception going on under the surface? Why are the characters

fooling the readers as well as, presumably, other characters? The elaborate

deception in Christopher Priest’s The Prestige, the revelation of truth at the end

of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, and the celebrated twist in M. Night

Shymalan’s The Sixth Sense are all like the dot at the end of an exclamation

point. They’re not twists just for the sake of a twist; they’re there to explain the

plot itself.

4. Plot twists must create interesting story situations

Most importantly of all, plot twists have to be able to create situations that

readers will be excited to read about. If (horror of horrors) someone figures out

your twist ahead of time, that twist still needs to be able to create such an

interesting story situation that, instead of being disappointed, readers will be

super-excited about the possibilities. Instead of saying, “Darn, I figured it out,” 

you want them to say, “Oh, baby, please let that be what it is!” Who wasn’t

excited by the possibilities when Darth Vader turned out to be Luke’s father?

When I figured out the twist in Brent Weeks’s The Black Prism, I couldn’t wait

for it to pan out. The results of twist were even better than the twist itself.

5. Plot twists must not take away from re-readability

If the focus is so tight on the twist itself that the story loses its oomph once

readers figure out what’s going on, then you know something is wrong. The sign

of a good story is that readers will love it just as much (if not more) when they

enter it for a second time knowing how everything pans out. This is exactly how

I feel about Brent Weeks’s twist in Beyond the Shadows, when readers (and the

protagonist) discover that certain decisions the protagonist has been making

throughout the book have been having unforeseen consequences all along.

Plot twists are always fun. So long as you pull them off well, your readers are

guaranteed to love them just as much as you do!

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About the Author: K.M. Weiland grew up chasingBilly the Kid and Jesse James on horseback throughthe sand hills of western Nebraska, where she stilllives. A lifelong fan of history and the power of thewritten word, she enjoys sharing both through hernovels and short stories. Visit her blog Wordplay:

Helping Writers Become Authors to read her takeon the writing life.

www.kmweiland.com

www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com