Want to Write a Killer Plot Twist? 3 Tips for Aspiring Writers
There’s nothing quite like getting to that 80% point in a book and reaching a brilliant plot twist, is there? That moment when you feel like your mind has been blown because it’s so perfect! You never saw it coming, and yet it feels right, like of course that was going to happen!
How do you write one of these? Today I’m going to give you three strategies to help you write a killer plot twist.
When I was working with my editor at HarperCollins on my first novel, When You Read This, we went back and forth on a few drafts, and as we were getting closer to it being ready to go to production, she sent me a note saying she just felt like one more thing needed to happen in the last fourth of the book.
She said she didn’t know what. But something. It needed…a little something.
I knew what she meant. I’d felt it, too.
A twist. It needed a twist.
I sat down and brainstormed—what could happen in the 25% of the book that would be a satisfying twist?
And it didn’t take me very long, because it was the thing I’d been resisting for years—yes, I’d been working on the book for years.
People would say, “Oooh, is THIS going to happen next?” And I’d say, “No! Never!”
But yes…it needed to happen.
I’m not going to tell you what it is so I don’t spoil the book, though! You’ll have to read it to see.
How do write a satisfying twist?
Tip #1: Make it surprising, but make sense
You know when you read a story with a plot twist and instead of thinking, “Whoa, I never would have thought of that! Brilliant!” you think, “WHAT?!”
That’s something my four-year-old is currently saying all the time when something happens that doesn’t fit his script for how the world works.
“WHAT?!”
Recently, I told him the date of his birthday, and he looked at me exasperated and said, “WHAT?! I thought you said I was four?”
The fact that there was another number associated with his birthday was surprising…but it also didn’t make sense to him, so he was just confused.
We don’t want to confuse the reader. A good plot twist will feel grounded in the world that you’ve built.
Ask these two questions. One: is this twist surprising or unexpected? And Two: does it make sense? Your answer should be “yes” for both of these questions, and actually it’s more important that the answer is yes to the second than to the first.
A good plot twist makes a reader think “That’s surprising but it feels right.” It’s not supposed to come entirely out of nowhere. So how do you do that?
Well, onto the next tip…
Tip #2: Foreshadow and misdirect
For a plot twist to be surprising but also make sense, it has to be something within the realm of possibility in your world but not at the forefront of the minds of your audience.
There are two tools you can use to help you strike this balance—you don’t have to use both. Either will do the job.
I also recommend not thinking of these as you’re writing your first draft. If you’ve watched many of my videos on Youtube, listened to my podcast, or heard me teach, you may know that I feel very strongly that as you’re writing your first draft, you want to be experiencing the story, not applying writing techniques.
We don’t want your head in the world of writing strategies; we want you to be living and breathing your characters.
But, while revising, you can go back and deploy these. Save these for revision.
The first technique, foreshadowing, is the planting of small clues earlier in the story that point to what will happen later, even if it only becomes clear in hindsight. Not huge things. Small things.
The smaller the better.
Tiny.
Teeny.
Are you getting it?
Little nuggets, and only a few of them. This isn’t a ton of writing. It’s only going to be a few sentences, otherwise, it’s going to be too heavy handed.
But we want them tiny, and we want a few. A Tiny, Scattered Few. Which is actually a great novel title if someone wants to take it: A Tiny, Scattered Few.
The second tool is misdirection. It’s kind of like the opposite of foreshadowing, when you drop in a detail that at first glance suggests a different outcome than what we see later.
A classic example would be implying that the killer is one person, when it’s going to turn out to be someone else.
Or implying a character is going to make one decision, when it turns out she’s going to make a different one.
We’re playing on people’s expectations and assumptions in an intentional way.
And again: we’re doing this in revision, not while writing the first draft.
Tip # 3: Don’t end the story with the twist
This might sound confusing.
You might be thinking, “But don’t I want to end my story with a bang? Leave my audience wanting more?”
Yes, and no.
If you’re writing a series, it’s okay to end your story with a cliffhanger, because you want your audience to tune in for the next installment.
But if you’re not—and in some cases, even if you are writing a series—the most satisfying plot twists will tee up one last problem for your protagonist to solve. So it doesn’t come on the last page.
It comes with, you know, 10% or 15% of the book left.
I’m not giving you a percentage rule, by the way, so please don’t email and say, is 16% okay? Of course it is—I literally just pulled those numbers out of my head.
I’m just saying, not on the last page.
A good twist is compelling because it has a consequence—now the situation has changed for your protagonist in a way they probably didn’t anticipate, and now they’re going to solve this new or different problem.
And it’s watching your protagonist grapple with that last hurrah that’s going to keep your reader sticking with you until the final word.
Ready to write your book?
If you made it this far, I’m guessing that you are writing a book, or want to write a book.
If so, I want to talk to you.
When I’m not writing, my mission in life is to help talented writers write their dream books. I love it. I live for it.
Because before I published my novels, I first had to figure out how to write one. It wasn't easy because none of the writing classes I was taking showed me how to actually write a novel.
Not until I had a newborn and only a couple of hours to write did I come up with a process. The process worked. I wrote my entire novel during my 8-week maternity leave. Now, I teach it in my program the Book Incubator and it works for dozens of other writers.
If you're curious to know more, I have a free video walking you through my exact process for writing a book.You can get it by clicking below and answering two questions to apply to the program.
You get the video whether you join or not—no pressure to enroll.
Just click below to tell me a little bit about you and your book—you can fill out a form online. I’m so excited to hear from you!
