Hey guys, I know I said I would post more stuff on this book and I am. It's just this topic is one I wanted to try out to the fullest before giving you all the details. Plots twists are one of the most asked topics I get from you guys...that and beta readers, writing good tension, planning series' and more. If you are here just to figure out how I write my plot twists, that won't go well for you. While I could only tell you my methods, I did some research and a lot has to do with what you would learn in school...but anyway, let's just get started.

Plot twists, to the average reader who doesn't write books, they probably seem easy to do and easy to set up...but it's actually the exact opposite. And unfortunately, there are more ways to write a plot twist wrong than right. As someone who has written on Wattpad for almost six years now, I have the advantage of knowing what my readers are thinking or what they could be expecting to happen. And that is a great feeling, I love having my readers get excited about my stories since I put a lot of work into each and every one of them. I'm sure a lot of writers on here will agree that that advantage is a great one to have...but it can also be a disadvantage.

Sure we know what the audience is thinking and that is great and all...but what if the audience guesses correctly what is going to happen next? Your book loses interest value since it is becoming predictable, and that's not a good thing. The more interest value your book loses, the more boring it is. No one wants to hear a story that they can basically tell themselves. So how do you recapture attention? This is what plot twists are for, they grab attention, they take what you might know and turn it on its head. They bend rules, they turn tides, and if you do it wrong...the repercussions can be fatal.

Lately, I've been reading on Wattpad...I don't know how I find the time but I do. I've read a lot of good books and a lot of bad ones. There are a lot of young writers on Wattpad, so I can overlook the whole issue of spelling, grammar, and such, but what makes or breaks whether I stick to a book is its interest value. If I'm bored with your book, I'm gonna look somewhere else. And a lot of the books I read were trying too hard to be unpredictable, which in turn, made them predictable.

If Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings were predictable, they wouldn't have been deemed as literary classics. If I can predict the ending of your story before I even get halfway through your book, I'm gonna lose interest and stop reading. And that is the case with a lot of people, it doesn't matter how well written your story is or how well thought out the storyline and characters are...if your story is predictable, it isn't worth a read. And that's the harsh truth for those who are clueless to that. That's why plot twists are so important in the movie/book industry, they are what save titles. People remember the plot twists of a movie/book, those twists and turns burn into their minds because they grab attention and stick out.

Depending on what direction you want to go with your book will determine what sort of plot twist you want. And while they all are different, they all have one thing in common, you have to plan it out or it will just fall apart. Don't worry, I'll explain how to do that too.

(1) 'Subtle' Misdirection

Extreme emphasis on the word subtle since people tends to pick up when they are being lead astray...unless they are incredibly dense. This is a case of if you try too hard, readers will notice. Subtle misdirection is something that takes time to master. It doesn't work on every one since each reader looks at things differently. For example, I tend to pick up on the little details of a story while my older brother does not since...he's incredibly dense. Anyway, it isn't easy to lead people astray, you have to be really convincing. And sometimes, readers learn your misdirection, so you have to stay ahead of that learning curve to keep people guessing. That may sound confusing and hard, but it is actually quite easy to do this in literature.

Red Herrings: Probably learned about this in school, and if not, I'll explain what they are. Red Herrings, by definition, not the food definition of it, is purposefully misleading clues or distractions. Politicians use red herrings a lot...and that's all I will say on that politics since I cannot stand politics. But in terms of the purpose of plot twists, red herrings are pre-designed deception tactics with a distinct purpose of steering readers in the wrong direction. How to do it is by planting false information or clues for the reader. The more convincing it is, the better the twist will be when you tell them the truth. This is sort of like planting false evidence on an innocent person to lead the investigators away from the murderer. Use this too much and people will pick up on it. A great way to do this is by surrounding a short sentence with long sentences. Our eyes immediately are drawn to shorter sentences rather than longer ones making them stick out more.

Dead-Ends: Not reaching the dead end in a maze, but guiding a reader down a way of thinking that is predisposed with disappointment. This can be helpful for dispelling any theories a reader may have. An example would be taking a theory that a reader may have and pose that as the solution to said problem but you give in small hints that 'things aren't right' or 'this is too easy' but without saying that out loud. This one uses a lot of show rather than tell way of writing. Coincidences, for example, are very useful here...well, false coincidences really. But use caution with this, you have to make sure there is a way for you to get the reader out of that dead-end or they will be stuck in it.

Misguided Attention: Probably the most overlooked just because of how it is used. Misguided Attention calls for giving plot reveals in such meaningless ways that a reader will see it just as meaningless and unimportant as it was written. Or giving plot reveals at such a fast pace that it is seen as meaningless. This isn't easy to do since this is a gamble. If you do it wrong, you just gave away part of the plot to the readers, but do it right and the pay off is great down the road. For example, I use to use misguided attention a lot and I was actually pretty successful at it...for about three months. Use is underlined because use one method too much and the readers will become used to it.

The more you use one method, the more susceptible it will become. If I used misguided attention all the time, my stories would be boring. To expand the methods, use more than just one. There are more methods in misdirection, but there is a risk involved here, something that writers overlook that is very important. The more you use misdirection, the less your readers trust you. And while that may seem good, it actually isn't. You want that trust, so don't always resort to misdirection, use other methods first.

(2) The 'No-One is Safe' Mentality

I have so much to say about this topic...so much, figures right? I mean, when I was just starting out writing on Wattpad, I became known for this mentality and I adopted it for a very specific reason...And that reason is: People don't change by having their hands held. How can you expect a character to change or learn something when you've been holding their hand?

I understand why writers don't like using that type of mentality, but realistically, the lessons that change us are learned the hard way. Now, I know I can't convince some of you to use this, but this is more talking to the people who overuse this.

This mentality does not only refer to character deaths, this can include any type of pain, heartbreak, torture, etc. Depending on the time period of your story will determine how...vicious...you are to your characters. For example, my stories are set in the medieval time period...meaning that I have to be hard on them since nothing was easy in the Middle Ages. I would use more of the physical/health side of the mentality while if you are writing a story set in modern time, probably going to bank more on the psychology/emotional side.

But just because I'm talking about harming characters does not mean you can be ruthless, you can have a heart sometimes but not all the time. Think about it, would you rather read the story that has no action and struggle or the story that show action and struggle? Characters grow through struggle and pain, without it, characters cannot grow.

Character Deaths: DO NOT KILL CHARACTERS WITHOUT JUSTIFICATION AND REPERCUSSIONS! Character deaths are not a small trivial matter, they are a very big deal. Character's deaths affect the entire cast and each has their own feelings and emotions on the death while the death also affects the plot/storyline. Killing a character without justification or a repercussion is just bad writing. I know this is rich coming from a writer who used to kill characters a lot, but I made sure every character in the story is affected and the storyline is pushed forward. I only use character deaths as a last option. So do not resort to using character deaths first. They are a fantastic plot twist method, but they come with a heavy price and heavy expectations.

(3) Putting Yourself in the Reader's Shoes

As a Wattpad writer, I have the advantage of knowing what my readers are thinking or expecting since some of my books are published and written chapter by chapter while some are entirely prewritten. And some of you might just be drafting and not publishing it or don't write on Wattpad at all. You will have it harder since you won't know your audience, but there is always a way to use this method. Try asking yourself this: What direction would you automatically expect for the story to go? What potential twists and turns immediately come to mind?

Note down all those answers, think of every possibility that a reader might expect...now throw all of those ideas away. It there is a chance that a reader can foresee a plot twist, they already have.

You have to think of something that would surprise you, something that seems completely out of nowhere. But keep it relevant. Now that may seem hard since as writers, we have the advantage of knowing the world we created, but if you stick to your original thought of your story, you'll lose interest in writing the story. Trust me, I know way too well, I've lost interest in a lot of good stories that I was writing, some of them were stories that my readers loved the most, but I stopped writing them or unpublished them because I lost interest completely.

The writer losing interest is fatal to a story, that's why plot twists are needed. They can be the thing that saves a story from being cut off short.

(4) 'Subtle' Foreshadowing

I will admit that I suck at foreshadowing which is why I did research into this since I am very bad at it. I haven't found a method that I like when it comes to foreshadowing.

Foreshadowing is hard to do, it is something that we can pick up on. It's those details that seem suspicious to us, and foreshadowing greatly depends on how it is written. And since I'm so poor at it myself, I did some research and found a combination of articles that I'll just share the main ideas of.

Add it in Last: Like my Professors always say, the first draft is the brain vomit and every draft after that is the story we are trying to tell. Basically, what I'm saying is that you never...or at least you shouldn't...turn in the first draft of your paper as the final draft. When it comes to foreshadowing, it can tend to mess things up when you add it is while in the drafting stage. For people who don't publish at all, this can be easy to do since you know the story you want and where the story is going. So adding in foreshadowing at the end is very easy. But for those who publish while writing, it can be harder. So plan things out and after you write out a chapter, add in the foreshadowing after the chapter is complete.

Okay, basically you need to find a balance between giving enough detail to make the plot twist believable and keeping it hidden enough so it would come as a surprise to the readers. I know I don't have a lot of helpful things about this, but I'm still trying to figure this out, it is a trial and error type of thing. As I said, I'm not good at foreshadowing myself, my readers tend to figure out when I'm foreshadowing easily.

(5) Let the Characters Write the Twists

Have you ever just zoned out when you are writing? I zone out a lot when I'm writing my books and once I come back to reality, I tend to not have a memory of writing that event that just happened. But this is actually a good thing since we overthink things a lot and overthinking would definitely ruin plot twists.

And when we try to create really clever plot twists it would just make us stuck and give us writer's block. Allow the characters to guide the story, often times you will find that you'll write a story that is better then the one in your head if you let the characters guide it.

Freewriting: Letting out of just your thoughts and emotions, letting the words flow, I love freewriting. You never stop to think too hard about what you are writing because you are just writing to what's in your head. Set a time limit or page limit if you are gonna try this since you don't want the characters to guide your entire story, but if you don't want to have this method used in your books or whatever you are writing, try writing a separate scenario or conversation between your characters outside of the world you have them in. Doing that instead can actually get you to know your characters much better since you are sending time with them.

Freewriting can take your story in directions you never thought of and the more unexpected it is to you, it will be even more unexpected to your readers.

(6) Making Subplots more important than the Main Plot

Confusing? Well here's the thing, this can be approached in many different ways and I'll explain what I mean. Often times subplots are the thing that provides interest, conflict, character development, and many more. They are the things that basically keep a reader entertained as the main plotline is processing. And I have a few methods that I tend to use:

Distraction: Subplots can be used as distractions from what's really going on in the main plotline. And sometimes, the readers will become too invested and forget important details from the main plotline making big lore reveal to the main plotline perfect since they have been too invested in the subplot to notice that things have been developing in the background.

Unexpected Interaction: Having a subplot that has ties with the main plotline in a way you wouldn't expect. The more that something surprises you, the better the twist is. A great example of this would be Lord Of the Rings, in the book/movies, the main plotline is to destroy the ring. That is the main plotline, the main goal, everything else that happens around that is subplots that ties or further advances the main plotline. Like Legolas, Gimili, Aragon gaining Rohan's trust as allies for the battle at Mordor so Frodo and Sam can destroy the ring. The Rohan subplot aids the main plotline of the story.

The Character Misdirection: Making your characters seem more invested in the subplot that to the readers makes them think the characters are ignoring the main plot which in turn will make your readers ignore the main plotline as well since your characters are ignoring it. Unfortunately, though, this is not always fool proof...trust me...I use to do this method a lot in my older stories. Not so much anymore since it is too predictable of me.

(7) Beta Readers
Okay, remember how I said to step into the reader's shoes? Well, this is actually testing it on readers. I will admit...I've had a lot of problems with beta readers in the past. They would reveal storyline elements to others or use the chapters I let them read for their own works. Which is why I stopped using beta readers.

Trust is a big thing with beta readers. Make sure you can trust them. If beta reading isn't for you, just skip this one. But if you have been thinking about getting a beta reader, they can be helpful.

Beta readers can tell you what is working and what isn't...but if you are gonna be a beta reader, you need to be honest. I'm a beta reader for a few writers on Wattpad and fanfiction.net and I'm brutally honest, I'm not gonna sugarcoat anything and beta readers should not sugarcoat anything either.

For plot twists, ask them if they saw the twist coming and if they did, fix it up. And don't tell your readers as to why you have a beta reader...because then they will be actively looking for plot twists.

(8) Make the twist believable and that it makes sense

A plot twist that makes no sense or is outlandish will make readers roll their eyes and maybe stop reading. Plot twists are shocking by nature but they need to be realistic and make sense.

Don't introduce a plot twist just for the sake of having one, and don't resort to gimmicks. Plots twists need to serve the story in furthering it, if you have a twist that doesn't further the story in any way, shape, or form then the twist isn't needed. Readers want their emotional investment to pay off and if you are throwing them meaningless plot twists, you are just tricking them and cheating them out of it which could make them stop reading.

The more realistic a twist could be, the better it is. Now that might be hard to achieve in say fantasy/adventure/sci-fi novels, but the more...I don't want to say realistic again. But the more real a twist is, the better.

That's all I got guys! As always, if you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask me! For this book, I do have some topics I am working on. I plan on doing a few grammar chapters.

I'm currently working on chapters for developing voice, basic grammar, creating magic systems, revision skills, and storyline notes. So if you have any other topic you want me to cover, tell me! :)