#plot twists

[thewriteadviceforwriters]

🔪 3 Plot Twists That Slap (and 1 that should be arrested) 🔪

hello and welcome back to me yelling on main about storytelling crimes. today we are talking about plot twists. specifically: the good, the god-tier, and the why-would-you-do-this-i-trusted-you tier.

let’s go.

✨ The Twist That Reframes Everything ✨ a.k.a. the “wait. WAIT.” twist. This is when you drop a twist that doesn’t just add drama - it recontextualizes the entire story. It makes the reader go back and reread earlier scenes like “was this character ALWAYS sketchy or am I just stupid??” It retroactively changes the emotional weight of everything that’s happened. Suddenly that offhanded comment in chapter three hits like a brick. The romance subplot becomes 500% more tragic. The villain’s motive makes SENSE now. Delicious.

✅ Best used when: the breadcrumbs are subtle but real. The twist shouldn’t come out of nowhere - it should feel inevitable in hindsight. Like Sixth Sense, Knives Out, that one betrayal in your favorite anime you still haven’t recovered from.

2.🧨 The Emotional Betrayal It’s giving: “i would’ve died for you” energy. This is the kind of twist that hurts. You thought they were loyal. You thought they cared. They did care - and still did it anyway. Or they never cared, and now you’re spiraling. This twist slaps because it’s not just about plot, it’s about trust. It stabs the characters AND the reader in the same motion. Bonus points if it’s a slow burn betrayal. Bonus bonus points if the betrayer feels genuinely torn up about it.

✅ Best used when: the reader is emotionally attached. Don’t waste this one on a side character we barely know. Save it for the love interest. The best friend. The mentor figure with dad energy. Make it personal. Make it RUIN lives.

3. 🧊 The “They Were Dead the Whole Time” but Make It Interesting Listen. This one’s risky. It’s a classic for a reason but also easy to flop. But when done well? Haunting. Creepy. Unhinged in a gorgeous way. It doesn’t have to be death either - maybe the character’s been possessed. Or they’re not real. Or the narrator’s memory is lying. The KEY is to not lean too hard on the shock. Lean on the vibes. Give it eeriness. Make it a slow unraveling. Give us dread. Give us melancholy. Give us psychological decay with a side of unreliable narrator.

✅ Best used when: you’re writing something surreal, gothic, speculative, or emotionally weird. This twist isn’t about plot logic, it’s about atmosphere and emotional rot.

🚨 The Twist That Should Be Arrested: “It Was All a Dream” 🚨 I’m sorry but. no. if I read 80k words of someone’s descent into madness just to find out it was their stress dream and now they’re normal again?? I will throw the entire book into a lake. This twist erases tension instead of escalating it. It invalidates everything the reader emotionally invested in. It’s the narrative equivalent of gaslighting. don’t do it. UNLESS - and this is a big unless - you’re doing it with INTENT. Meta intent. Dream-within-a-dream psychological horror intent. If you’re gonna do it, it better haunt me. It better RUIN me. Otherwise? Into the lake.

okay that’s all. go forth and commit plot crimes responsibly. bonus points if you use all three Good Twists in the same story and then look me in the eye like “oh was that too much?”

it wasn’t.

tag me when you emotionally destroy someone with it.

🕯️ download the pack & write something cursed:

Write the Darkness: 75 Dark Academia x Horror Prompts

A gothic prompt pack for writers who love cursed universities, secret societies, and scholarly rot.✎ Write the Darkness ✎A 75-prompt horror

[rosesinspirationandreference]

🍀 21 Plot Twist Ideas 🍀

Stuck on your WIP? Unsure of how a scene should go? Feel as though your story is lacking substance? Enduring with the frustrations of writer’s block?

Why not try throwing in a plot twist?

A messenger brings bad news

Something important is stolen

Someone vanishes without a trace

An important item is damaged

Protagonist recognizes a face in the crowd

Someone seems to intentionally fail

Protagonist finds an item thought lost

A charitable act has a harmful result

A cruel act has a beneficial outcome

Someone unexpectedly returns the favour

A raging storm moves across town

A gift makes a character the target of a murderer

A fallen enemy makes one last attack

Only one character in danger can be saved

An enemy saves the life of Protagonist’s friend

A will from a long-lost relative appears

A secret rival seeks to replace Protagonist

A thief makes Protagonist their next target

An obscure law suddenly becomes important

Strangers mistake Protagonist for a fugitive

A tool breaks when needed most

[theaawalker]

Steps to Write Compelling Plot Twists

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1. Plan the Twist Early

Decide the Purpose: Determine how the twist advances the story or challenges the characters.

Foreshadow Strategically: Seed subtle clues throughout the narrative that hint at the twist without giving it away.

2. Build Tension and Expectations

Create a Red Herring: Introduce elements that mislead the audience into expecting a different outcome.

Heighten Stakes: Ensure the events leading up to the twist are emotionally engaging and meaningful.

3. Deliver the Twist Impactfully

Time it Right: Place the twist at a moment of high tension or when it feels least expected but still logical.

Use Reversal or Revelation: Employ one of two main twist types:

Reversal: A situation is the opposite of what the audience believed.

Revelation: New information changes the context of prior events.

4. Maintain Credibility

Anchor in Logic: Ensure the twist is believable within the story’s world and doesn’t feel contrived.

Align with Characters: Make sure the twist fits with established character motivations and actions.

5. Reflect the Impact

Affect the Narrative: Show how the twist changes the story’s direction or character dynamics.

Re-examine Earlier Clues: Allow the audience to realize how the twist was set up through earlier hints.

Examples of Plot Twists in Films and Books

1. Film Examples

The Sixth Sense: The revelation that Dr. Malcolm Crowe is dead reframes the entire story and previous interactions.

Fight Club: The twist that Tyler Durden and the narrator are the same person shocks the audience and redefines the plot.

Parasite: The discovery of the secret bunker adds unexpected layers of tension and tragedy.

2. Book Examples

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn: Amy's manipulation and fake disappearance drastically shift the narrative’s direction.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie: The reveal of the murderer’s identity ties all the deaths to a chilling plan.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling: The twist that Sirius Black is not the villain but Harry’s ally surprises and deepens the story.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐆𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐎𝐟𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚

The Guardians of Camoria by A.A. Walker

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thank you, i am farkle :)

[tainted-scholar]

Rewatching Treasure Planet (great movie, watch it) made realize something about the way that stories convey information to their audiences. There's been a lot of discussion on the overuse of plot twists and how many stories prioritise surprising their audience over telling decent stories. However, if you instead reveal the "twist" to the audience before it becomes known to the characters, you can build tension and stakes. Treasure Planet comes right out and tells you that Long John Silver is the main villain almost immediately after his introduction (And even before he's introduced we're warned about a cyborg, so you'd have to be pretty dense to not put 2 and 2 together and realize he's a bad guy). So when the audience watches him and Jim bond and grow closer, it builds tension for when Jim finds out and it highlights the tragedy of their friendship, because we all know it's not going to end well. Then, after the truth is revealed, stakes are created because we want the friendship between Jim and Silver to be repaired, because we know it was real, but we don't know if can be after what Silver's done. And all of this would have been lost if Silver's true nature had been a cheap plot twist. The tragedy would be completely overshadowed by the surprise and betrayal, and any investment in their relationship would have been built on the false impression that Silver was a good guy.

Another good example of this is Titanic. Even if you were somehow ignorant of the ship's sinking, the film makes sure you know that it sank with its framing device of Old Rose telling her story to people salvaging the Titanic's wreak. And Titanic's plot structure could only possibly work if you know the ship is going to sink. I'm not just talking about building tension, tragedy, and stakes for the characters like with the above example, I mean that if you didn't know that the Titanic was going down walking into the film, the abrupt shift from romance to suspense-disaster would be an increadibly tough pill to swallow. But it works because we expect it. You don't walk into a film called Titanic without expecting the damn boat to sink.

However, the sad thing about both of these examples, is that despite all the benefits that came from telling the audience these things ahead of time, I think the main reason the creators didn't make them plot twists was because they couldn't have. Treasure Island is the single most influential piece of pirate media out there, and you'd have to have been living under a rock for over a century to not know the Titanic sank. So, the writers had to work around the fact that these important turning points in the narratives were common knowledge, and they wound creating incredible stories as a consequence.

I want to see more of this style of writing in stories where the writers aren't forced to do it. We've clearly seen that you can tell some really damn good stories by giving information to the audience before the characters learn it, and I just wish more works would do that instead of trying to surprise people with shocking twists.

[mabevil]

in all seriousness, can you picture what an absolute insane reveal it would be to find out that koschei has been pulling all the strings to get what he needed and it’s actually elriel and vassien that were supposed to be mates?

but due to outside forces, they’ve both been kept from the joy of knowing another’s soul, the same way you know your own soul.

they’ve been denied the most powerful love they could ever imagine, while being forced to perform this farce of a mating bond that does nothing but bring misery to these two. all the while the person they were truly meant to be with was out there, lonely, waiting to be found and reunited with their true soulmate, thinking they would never come.

and suddenly, with this reveal, they are all free, in a way they never could have imagined. suddenly, everything clicks into place; all those uncomfortable interactions, the apathy, questioning your own god. questioning her worth; all those almost-touches, charged glances, a spark in his russet eye- it all starts to make sense, why nothing made sense before..

that’s the kind of reveal that would have me setting my book down and staring at the wall for a while. the kind of reveal that would have me thinking about it for years to come.

that is beautiful storytelling. that is what this series is about.

[agentoffangirling]

No betrayal storylines can ever beat "Ward is HYDRA" and "This is the Bad Place"

Those are the only betrayals I will accept. They are so top tier. No one else can touch them and that's just a fact

[pablodemon-6]

locking it in that im a we were liars fan before the show comes out. i read the book back in 2020 and the plot twist will never leave me. insane read, cant wait to see how they tackle it for the show.