Cat Fight In The Kitchen-Wattpad Rant

Overused Plot Twists

Y'all, my best friend just finished his fifteenth marathon and I could not be more proud of him. Especially since he wasn't even sure if he was going to be back in time for it and had a two week job so he didn't get to workout (or call me, not that I'm bitter about that). But he still killed it.

Except I was thinking about it, and I'm starting to wonder if this is an elaborate joke. Like, he probably just sits in some peaceful country behind a desk doing some office job. That sounds like something he would totally do. I keep waiting for him to randomly call and say "gotcha. I just file paperwork." I would be pissed.

But that's neither here nor there. We have some ranting to do, so let's do it to it.

Today, let's talk about Overused Plot Twists

Because as much as I love a good plot twist, a lot of them get repeated over and over. Which is fine, except anymore, a lot of them aren't necessarily well done and that just makes them so boring. And I think it's due to the fact that they're so overused that there's a certain formula that people are following now. So let's see what kind of advice I can come up with (says the girl that can predict 98% of every story/movie and yet she still enjoys them because surprise isn't a necessity for enjoyment).

1. It was all a dream/made up

This one I have an insanely hard time getting on board with, because it honestly makes me feel like I wasted a bunch of time. I don't know why, it just does. Maybe I haven't read the right book with this twist, but I honestly feel like this one is a cop-out. Like a lot of people use it when they want some weird sci-fi, fantasy twisted shit, but they don't want to have a logical explanation for any of it (which to me, is imperative in world building and the likes).

So my suggestion for this one: don't do it! Or if you do, don't end it with "it was all a dream" and "and then she woke up". I would love to see the dream thing be a plot twist in the middle, not the end. Like, the dream ends up making sense in the later portion of the story and wasn't just some crazy, pointless adventure. That would be cool. I feel like there might actually be some big ones like that, but I can't think of any right now. Leave it in the comments if you know of one (or even if you just know what I'm talking about, because I feel like that doesn't make sense).

2. The fake death

This one always annoys me, because I have a huge love/hate relationship with killing characters off. Like, I love it when it gets me overly emotional and breaks my heart and makes me feel something, but I hate it at the same time, because it's usually my favorite characters. And I know death is this insanely final thing, which I think is a lot of the reason why writers often backtrack on their decision and decide to resurrect characters (especially ones they (and their readers) love). But, to me, this cheapens the death.

When death is included in the story, I feel like it adds another element into the progression. And bringing that character back ruins all that beautiful work. I remember when my grandmother, who I was extremely close with, passed away. And when my brother texted me and told me (yeah, we're terrible people), I didn't cry. I didn't really feel anything. Like, I was kind of numb.

I went about my day. I finished up all the things I was working on. I put my affairs in order for the end of the week (it was a late, late Tuesday night) so I could take off work and get out of classes (I was in college at the time).

I made the long ass drive back to my dads. Got there on Thursday night. I talked to him about it. We talked about her last days. We talked about all the work we were going to have to do to get rid of the house and her stuff, divide up all the shit between his siblings, all the paperwork. All the bank account shit and CDs and tax stuff. We just talked business. And I still didn't cry.