Speaker 1: A lot of writers tend to stress out when it comes to making their stories, and especially their plot twists, as original as possible. We're going to talk about this today, so stick around. By the way, my name is Brandon McNulty. I'm the author of Bad Parts, also the author of Entry Wounds, and welcome to my writing channel. This week I was having a discussion with one of my subscribers about the subject of plot twists. And she had a concern. She was concerned about the originality of the plot twists in her story. And she asked me, Brandon, is it okay to use a stock plot twist in a story? And by stock plot twist, she means basically any plot twist that we've seen time and again, many times before. It's something that's familiar to us, because her concern was that, okay, if a plot twist has been done before, then there's not really going to be much impact, is there? And the thing is, I got thinking about it, and when you do think about it, most plot twists are, in fact, stock plot twists, meaning they've been done before. Maybe even hundreds or even thousands of years before. And I wanted to discuss this today, and right up front, I just want to point out what a plot twist is. A plot twist is a revelation that causes us to see the story, or a character, or some aspect of the story in a completely different light. In other words, it turns the story on its head, it's a spoiler, it's something we don't expect going into the story, or we don't even expect as we're going through the story. Plot twists usually involve new info about who a character really is, what a character really wants, why a character actually wants to be a character, and so on. Or how a character acts the way they do, or how a character got to be where they're at right now. And typically, it's going to involve a character's history, but you might also have a plot twist that involves things like a surprising death, or a reversal of fortune, or many other things like that. The key thing to remember is that a plot twist is a surprise that causes us to rethink the story. Now, as I mentioned, there are plenty of plot twists out there that have been done time and again, through the years, through the centuries, through the millennia. And yet, when we see these plot twists again, they still matter. And yet, when we see these plot twists again, they still matter. The reason for this is because it's all about how you approach that plot twist, how you build toward it with your characters, your setting, your plot, your different aspects of storytelling, even your own personal touch that you put on the story. That's what will determine whether or not a plot twist works, whether or not a plot twist feels like it's original. Now, here's some examples. I don't want to go too far into examples today because I don't want to spoil too many stories. But one example of a plot twist would be the false protagonist plot twist. I think the most famous example of this comes from the movie Psycho. And if you've ever seen a video clip of the shower scene, you know that there's a woman who gets killed in this movie. And that woman is Janet Leigh's character. She appears to be the protagonist early on in the story. She's the focal character, the one we follow early on in the story. And it seems like she is our main character until she gets killed about a quarter of the way through the story. And then it just tips the story on its head. All of a sudden, her sister has to take up the role. She has to take up the role of the protagonist and investigate her death. Now, Psycho came out in 1960. So if you're a moviegoer, you're thinking, okay, you can't do that again. It's not going to work. Psycho already pulled it off, so you can't get cute with that. But in 1996, the movie Scream did the same thing with the false protagonist twist. And in this movie, at the very beginning, we are introduced to Drew Barrymore's character. And Drew Barrymore, of course, in the 1990s, was a big-time actress. So naturally, if you see her at the start of the movie, you're getting the sense that, okay, Drew Barrymore, she's going to be our final girl. She's probably going to end up killing whoever the monster is. She'll stick around until the very end. Except in the movie Scream, Drew Barrymore is killed off at the very end of the prologue. So what Scream did, Scream took that exact same plot twist from Psycho, and they made it work again. They shocked the audience by creating a situation where we're led to believe that, okay, Drew Barrymore is going to be okay, except no, she isn't. And the plot twist worked. Now, I don't know what it is about the year 1996, but there was another story that also pulled off this false protagonist twist. And it was a little book called Game of Thrones, which was a fantasy novel. And if you know anything about fantasy novels, typically these are stories where the good guys win out. There's good versus evil. Good wins out most of the time in this genre. But in Game of Thrones, this was a different type of fantasy novel. And the main character, or at least the guy who appeared to be the main character, was dead by the end of the story. And of course, Game of Thrones was a larger series, so audiences who were invested in the guy who seemed like the main character and then he ended up getting killed off, that threw them for a loop. That was a plot twist that had a ton of impact, even though it had been done before in the movie Psycho. Another common type of plot twist is when you have a revelation about a character's lineage, who their parents are, who their family is, things like this. And this is something that's been going on forever. This plot twist is ancient. You could go all the way back to 452 B.C. and you could look at the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles. And in this story, Oedipus, he's a guy who eventually becomes king, and he, during the course of this story, unknowingly kills his father, and he unknowingly marries his mother. And then later on, when he finds out that his wife is actually his mom, he starts freaking out and he gouges his eyes out, and it's a huge mess. And you would think that, oh wow, that story is ancient, I mean, that plot twist was done before, how could we ever use it again? And yet, Game of Thrones, that little book I told you about, it eventually became a big TV series. And in one of the later seasons, Jon Snow, who's one of the main characters, unknowingly falls in love with his aunt. And I'll give you one more example, and this is another one that's a revelation about a character's lineage. In Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, you have a plot twist where the bad guy is actually the protagonist's father. And you might say to yourself, well, okay, that was 1980, that worked back then, but right now, everybody on the planet knows that, you know, Darth Vader was Luke's father, so you can't be using that plot twist anymore. You'd be nuts to use that anymore. And yet, in the 2022 movie The Batman, this plot twist worked very well, not necessarily with the protagonist, but however, with a side character. And you had a situation where you had a side bad guy being the father of one of the major side characters. So, it's important to remember that you can use any plot twist in an original way. It's all about finding the right ingredients that you choose to include in your story, and then how you, as the chef, cook up those ingredients in a meaningful way. That's how you create impact, that's how you create surprise in your stories. And one thing I want to throw out before I wrap up this video, how you combine your ideas is more important than any single idea you have. By the way, if you want a more detailed look at how to write plot twists, check out my video from last year that I did on WandaVision. I'll link it at the top of the screen as well as in the description below. And that video has plenty of practical advice and strategies that you can incorporate into your stories. In order to build toward shocking plot twists. So, definitely check that out if you do want a more detailed look at the subject. So, I hope this helps. Question of the day. How much do you stress out about originality in your stories? Let us know in the comments section below. Thank you guys for watching. If you want to support the channel, please pick up a copy of either one of my novels. Also, be sure to check out my other videos. Hit the like and subscribe buttons for me. Share this video with a friend. And as always, remember to keep on writing.