.png){kind=small}
I wrote a horror story last month at the request of a friend. It's a straightforward tale of a woman who goes on a date with a man who turns out to be a serial killer.
A few weeks ago, I submitted it for critique on my favorite critique site, Scribophile. I received some excellent and constructive feedback—one reader suggested I beef up the story with a twist.
Thus, this week I'm focusing on brainstorming twists. I like my stories to have twists, but I've done the whole "the victim was the real threat all along" twist a couple of times, so it can't be that.
What Makes a Bad Twist?
It's pretty simple: a bad twist makes no sense. It's not telegraphed beforehand; it's something that the audience has zero way of figuring out.
In his amazing video "Sherlock Is Garbage, And Here's Why," YouTuber HBomberguy points to an episode of Sherlock with an utterly bizarre twist where the killer was a boomerang all along. Yes, a boomerang.
The main problem with this twist is that, when you go back and re-watch the episode, there is neither a glimpse nor mention of a boomerang until the "reveal."
That's a bad twist.
What Makes a Good Twist?
You want your twist to be foreshadowed but not obvious. It's a helluva balance to strike.
As previously discussed, a good way to implement twists is by brainstorming 10 possible twists, narrowing it down to the top 4, then picking the best one, and finally, going back and sprinkling clues in your writing.
How Do We Brainstorm 10 Twists?
Ross Hartmann's The Structure of Story suggests some questions to ask yourself when brainstorming to decide the false reality, such as:
Who do we want the audience to think is the real villain?
What do we want the audience to think is the true relationship between characters?
What do we want the audience to think about the identity of the character?
What do we want the audience to think is the plan or strategy?
Hartmann adds the following tip:
One of the best ways to have the audience assume the false reality is to give a character a strongly held belief that the surface reality is the truth. In The Sixth Sense, Bruce Willis' character has a strongly held belief that he's alive.
So with all that in mind, let's brainstorm some twists for my horror story.
Who do we want the audience to think is the real villain?
Well, I want the audience to think the serial killer is the villain.
What do we want the audience to think is the true relationship between characters?
I would like the audience to assume that the serial killer has the upper hand.
What do we want the audience to think about the identity of the character?
I want them to think that she's naive and helpless.
What do we want the audience to think is the plan or strategy?
I would love for the audience to think there is no plan or strategy.
Okay, so...with that in mind...here are some possible twists:
The so-called victim is also a serial killer (been there, done that).
The victim had a loved one go missing and she suspects this is the guy behind it, so she's been seducing him all along with the plan of investigating.
The victim really is a clueless college student, but she ends up liking killing so much that she takes up the mantle of serial killer.
The previous boyfriend mentioned in the story also turned out to be a serial killer, and that's why she knows how to escape them (I didn't come up with this one, I stole it from my critique partner).
Her roommate, who's been encouraging her to go out with the guy, ends up being the serial killer's partner-in-crime.
The victim has been hallucinating the encounter and is actually both the killer and the victim. I hate this one but I'm running out of ideas.
The victim gets "killed" but then you find out she's IMMORTAL.
The serial killer really is lonely and is trying to find his soulmate by finding the fighter amongst his victims.
After killing her attacker, the victim finds something indicating that he's part of a "family" of serial killers, and she decides she has more work to do (Not sure if that counts as a "twist").
The victim thinks she's getting rescued by someone, only they turn out to be in on the crime.
Alright! Those are my 10 initial ideas. You'll notice that some of those ideas are garbage, and that's okay. The point is to get the creative juices flowing.
Here are my four favorites:
The victim had a loved one go missing and she suspects this is the guy behind it, so she's been seducing him all along with the plan of investigating.
Her roommate, who's been encouraging her to go out with the guy, ends up being the serial killer's partner-in-crime.
The victim gets "killed" but then you find out she's IMMORTAL.
The serial killer really is lonely and is trying to find his soulmate by finding the fighter amongst his victims.
As for which twist I'll go with, well...you'll have to wait and read it to find out!
Thanks for reading along with me while I brainstormed. Let me know in the comments if you have any other suggestions for twists!
Comentarios