Plot Twist Story Prompts: An Invitation
Every good story needs a nice (or not so nice) turn or two to keep it interesting. This week, give a character an invitation.
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, Unexplained Phenomenon, here.
Plot Twist Story Prompts: An Invitation
For today's prompt, give a character an invitation. The invitation could be to a party. Or the invitation could be to a fight. Characters have been invited to all manner of gatherings. Sometimes they involve two people (the invitee and the invited); sometimes they involve scores of people.
An invitation immediately prompts several questions your character(s) will have to answer. First, do they answer the invitation? If they do, do they say yes, no, or maybe? Is the invitation cause for excitement or trepidation? Also, is the invitation from a known person or organization? Or was it sent anonymously? And these questions are just for starters.
Your characters may not want to go, but they may feel they have to attend. Or they may want to attend, but they don't want anyone else to know they've been invited, especially if they're embarrassed or feel like others will feel left out. All these possibilities can spring from a simple little invite.
So deliver an invitation to your characters and begin answering all those uninvited questions.
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Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.