Plot Twist Story Prompts: Eliminate Threat

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, Intentional Trail, here.

For today's prompt, have a character work to eliminate a threat. The threat could be a new sudden development, or it could be something that's been building for a while. The twist in the story is that your character finally decides that the threat must be dealt with; in fact, it should be eliminated.

(4 Types of Conflict.)

In a romance, the threat may be another potential suitor. How would that threat be eliminated then? Murder? If so, the romance would suddenly turn into a murder-mystery, right? But maybe instead, the other suitor is given an assignment that forces them to leave the country (or at least the region), and that eliminates the threat (at least in the short term).

Maybe the threat is a bank trying to foreclose on a house or farm (or some other property). In this case, eliminating the threat may involve raising the funds to pay off the loan. Or we might get back into murder-mystery territory. Regardless of how the threat is eliminated, this plot twist is good for giving your characters a real goal to accomplish.

And keep in mind that your character works to eliminate a threat; it's possible they fail in their attempt. How they process their new situation after that failure can lead to some interesting new avenues for your story.

So have a character work to eliminate a threat, 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.