#howtowrite

Plot twist

I once heard a quote that said there are three parts to a book, the beginning, middle and the twist.  I could not agree more with that, almost every book has a plot twist and as a writer it can feel impossible to get a great one, as always there are a few tips to help us out. 

1.There is a big difference between a climax and a plot twist. Some stories just need a great climax. If a story follows two teenagers falling in love and at the end during a fight he saves her from a fire and dies, that is a great climax, but that is not a plot twist, a plot twist would be if he set the fire out of anger and then had second thoughts and tried to save her, but ended up dying himself. A climax is a big event in the book, often dramatic. A plot twist is an event in the climax that adds a whole new meaning to the story and makes the ending next level amazing. 

2. A plot twist does not come out of nowhere. It is built up to, slowly and secretly, when they get to the plot twist it should be an ah-ha moment, your readers should wonder how they didn't see it coming, but they should never expect it along the way. 

3. Adding a mystery character who is secretly related to the main character and then does some drastic thing is not a twist, A twist is most exciting when it is by the characters your readers love and care about. 

4. A believable plot twist has to have a reasonable explanation, if one of the main characters is spying throughout the story you have to make sure there is a good reason, something drastic enough to make people understand their actions. 

5. The plot twist doesn't have to be character driven it can be an event. In the fault in our stars, Augustus got cancer and died instead of hazel, that is unexpected because through the whole book Hazel is the really sick one, but it makes sense because he use to have cancer too. In twilight Bella got pregnant, which is shocking because well, Edward is a freakin vampire.  Although the biggest plot twist in that series is Jacob and bella's daughter, yet it still makes sense. In the book extraordinary means the title fails us, (if you read the book you'll understand what I mean...) Some of the best twist are something that happens that shouldn't have.

6. When planning the plot twist try and make it important to the place or people, don't just randomly kill the main character. I mean if someone walked up and just shot them at the end for no reason that is a plot twist but It will leave readers with a lot of questions.