Plot Twist Story Prompts: Achieve Worse

Plot twist story prompts aren't meant for the beginning or the end of stories. Rather, they're for forcing big and small turns in the anticipated trajectory of a story. This is to make it more interesting for the readers and writers alike.

Each week, I'll provide a new prompt to help twist your story. Find last week's prompt, Bad Choice, here.

For today's prompt, have a character accomplish a goal that makes things worse. Your protagonist seeks a cure for a dying relative and finds an answer in a book of spells. However, the spell comes with a catch and a price that suddenly make the situation worse for both the protagonist and the dying relative.

(When Is My Novel Ready to Read?)

Of course, Mary Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein is all about a scientist seeking to accomplish the reanimation of living tissue and create life. He accomplishes his goal, but he ends up paying a heavy price for his accomplishment, as does his creation.

The fun thing about this plot twist is that for a moment it appears your characters are actually achieving their goals. But momentary victory leads to a new peril, whether that's dealing with your humanoid creation, a magic spell gone wrong, or even barely catching a train...just in time to learn there's a murderer on board.

So have a character accomplish a goal, and see what happens next.

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Have you hit a wall on your work-in-progress? Maybe you know where you want your characters to end up, but don’t know how to get them there. Or, the story feels a little stale but you still believe in it. Adding a plot twist might be just the solution.

Click to continue.