Speaker 1: Hi everyone, I'm Shaylin here with Readsy. Today we're going to be talking about plot twists. Writing a stellar plot twist is something a lot of writers aspire for, but it's not easy. An amazing plot twist can make a book, it can be the thing that readers never forget, it can be the thing that blows their minds, but at the same time, if a plot twist falls flat or is predictable, it can drag the entire book down with it. Plot twists, especially plot twists at the end of the book, or really radical game-changing plot twists, kind of can make or break an entire story. So what is a plot twist? Probably know already, you've probably encountered plenty of them, but essentially it's a radical change that just completely upends our expectation of where the story was going. This can be anything from a dramatic and unexpected plot point, like an unexpected character death that completely shifts the chain of events, or it could be a reveal that completely changes our perception of what the story was about or what was going on behind the scenes. You especially see plot twists in genres like thriller or horror, but they're present in pretty much every genre. A twist could be something like a character isn't who they seem, something that seemed unimportant turned out to be crucial, or the conflict wasn't what the protagonist even thought it was. Before we get into a couple tips, as a quick note, just so you know, I will be bringing in a couple examples, but I won't spoil anything in this video. So if you see me talking about a movie or a book that you plan to read, don't worry, I won't spoil anything, but I will leave a link in the description with over 70 examples of amazing plot twists that you can check out if you want more examples. So that said, let's get into some tips. The first tip is if you really want to have a plot twist in your book, start brainstorming twists and then discard them. If it comes to mind quickly, it's probably too obvious. I won't say what book, but there's a book that is actually known for its plot twists. This is what people know the book for, it's actually also a movie. And I read this book, it was actually for a book club that I was in a long time ago. When I read The Back Jacket, I immediately guessed what the plot twist was. It was that clear to me just from the summary, and for context, I'm not good at guessing plot twists. Normally I will never see a twist coming, I'm really not good at predicting plot twists. So if I predict the plot twist, then you know it's quite obvious. And I was completely right, that's exactly what the twist was. It felt like such an obvious outcome to me that I didn't even need to read the book to see that this is what the twist was going to be. Because to me, it was the most obvious and inherent twist just from the book's concept. This is something you want to avoid. That's why a lot of the time the first ideas that come to mind need to be discarded, because they're probably also the first ideas that come to your reader's mind. The second tip is probably the most obvious one, and that's to use foreshadowing. So I've got an entire video on foreshadowing with a bunch of different foreshadowing techniques that you can use, so I'll leave a link to that in the cards and in the description. But foreshadowing is key any time your story upends the expected. Think of foreshadowing as a way to build credibility after the fact. So that when the reader looks back, they'll go, oh yeah, I should have seen that coming, that makes sense. The goal really with any plot twist is that as soon as the reader gets to the plot twist, they go, oh, I should have seen this coming, this is so obvious, but they didn't. That's really the ultimate goal, is for it to seem obvious in retrospect, but completely unpredictable up until that point. There's a really great twist at the end of the film, Us by Jordan Peele. This is a horror movie, it's one of my favorite horror movies. I knew there was a twist going into this movie, friends I was watching it with told me, hey, this movie has a really good twist. So I was like, okay, I think I know there's a plot twist, and I've already seen a film by this director, so maybe I'll catch on. I did not see it coming at all, completely got me. And it was definitely that kind of magic combination of ingredients where as soon as I got to the plot twist, I looked back like, of course, of course, of course. And I started thinking of all the little details and they all clicked together and I was like, oh, that meant that, that meant that, should have seen it from that. But I didn't see it in the moment because the film was smarter than me. But the reason that this twist works so well is because Peele didn't just throw in a curveball and then expect us to all be shocked. What he did was reveal the truth of the story he'd been telling all along. This really is, I think, often the key to a good plot twist. At the end of the movie, he didn't change the story. It was just our understanding of the story that changed. If you drastically change your story, it might not make sense. Sometimes it's not about changing the story. It's about changing either the reader or your protagonist's understanding of the story. The next tip is to subtly plant misdirection. Red herrings, aka something in the story that diverts the reader's attention, can work in conjunction with foreshadowing. However, you do have to be quite subtle and careful with this. Remember, when you're using a red herring, if the red herring is actually irrelevant to the plot, the reader will feel kind of cheated. A red herring can distract the reader from a plot twist, and it's a super valid technique in doing that, but if the red herring plays no role in the story other than being there as a distraction, it'll feel divisive and the reader might feel a little cheated. The red herring still needs to belong in the story and play a role other than misdirection so that the reader is distracted by something that still should be there. Tip four is to stay logical. Of course you can make the most wild, unbelievable plot twist possible if you completely forego logic. Plot twists are great as long as they make sense. Like I said earlier, plot twists need to make sense in retrospect, and if you forego logic, this probably won't happen. Sometimes writers get so caught up in creating the wildest twist possible that they forget that the twist has to have logical consistency with the story. And along with that, you need to stay in character, even if the real version of the character is incongruous with the reader's perception of the character up until the plot point. Characters are often the vehicles for good plot twists. Someone in the story isn't who we thought they were, you know, the love interest was actually the killer. Cool betrayals like that can make great plot twists. For example, the plot twist at the end of the first season of The Good Place is a great example of a plot twist that is really effective and also upends our perception of a certain character. But in order to pull off a plot twist like this, the reality of the character needs to be properly set up. If the character acts out of character just to make this plot twist work, it's probably not going to be very effective. All of the motivations still need to line up, even if they aren't what we thought they were initially. Tip six is to remember that payoff is just as important as setup. A lot of the time with plot twists, we talk so much about the setup that we kind of forget that the payoff is just as important. If there isn't adequate consequence for the plot twist, it's going to fall flat after the initial reveal. Remember, a plot twist isn't just a moment. It's a sharp change in the story's direction, which means we need to actually see the effect of that change going forward. And finally, tip number seven is to elevate the unimportant. This is a fantastic technique, especially if you're writing a series and you have a lot of time for development. An object, a detailed piece of information in the story that seems very minor to the point that the reader's not really going to think much of it actually being crucial. There's a great example of this in the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. If you've read the series, you know what I'm referring to, where there's an object in the story that you really think is meaningless. You really don't think much of it. And then it's revealed at a certain point that this object is actually of great importance and has played great importance within the plot line up until this point. It's one of my favorite plot twists ever, but it's not something that I ever clocked as being important. It was just there. It all made so much sense as soon as we got to that reveal. So especially if you have a lot of time, if you've got multiple books, use these little details in book one to actually be really important details by the time you get to book three, four, five. This is a great way to have long-term payoff in a series. So that is how to write a plot twist. What book or film or show or any piece of media has your favorite plot twist? Let me know in the comments without spoiling the twist for anyone who might be watching. Thank you so much for watching. Remember to subscribe and turn on notifications so you don't miss any new videos from us. We've got new writing, editing, and publishing tips every Tuesday and Friday. Until next time. Bye.