Plot Twist Story Prompts: Deeper Magic

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, Celebration, here.

For today's prompt, reveal a deeper magic at work in your story. While many writers may think this only applies to a fantasy story or one involving witches and wizards, deeper magic can appear anywhere. Often, the deeper magic is somehow revealed as an expression of love or sacrifice from a single person or group of people.

(5 Tips for Mixing Magic and Romance in a Novel.)

Some of the very popular and obvious examples are from the children's fantasy stories of The Chronicles of Narnia and the Harry Potter series. In both instances, the evil doers are surprised by a deeper magic that thwarts their plans. But there could be a deeper magic working in other genres too.

For instance, a romance could have a deeper magic that brings two people together (or that pushes them apart, because no one said the deeper magic has to be good magic, right?). One of the fun things about magic in non-fantasy genres is that the characters can take different positions on whether it's magic at work or something else...like luck, chance, or illusion.

So reveal a deeper magic, 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.