Plot Twist Story Prompts: Eavesdropping

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, Out of Control, here.

For today's prompt, have a character do a bit of eavesdropping. That is, a character overhears and/or sees something that they probably weren't intended to hear or see. On the surface, this might not seem like much of a plot twist, but stories can be torn in whole new directions by the information discovered and distributed from acts of eavesdropping.

(21 Fast Hacks to Fuel Your Story With Suspense.)

For instance, a person overhears part of a conversation between a man and someone else, and the man ends the conversation with, "I love you." The eavesdropper may believe that man is talking to a lover, but it could be a mother, sibling, or old friend. However, once the eavesdropper has their information, it can spread to others and cause mass acts of chaos.

Of course, for a super twisty plot twist, a character could intentionally "get caught" by the eavesdropper, knowing it will cause chaos. In such cases, the deceptive character is probably trying to mess up the plot for someone else and/or cause a distraction for their true aim. And don't discount the possibility of having an unreliable eavesdropper who exaggerates or outright makes things up.

So have a character do a bit of eavesdropping and see what happens next.

*****

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.