Plot Twist Story Prompts: Extra Time

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, Between Worlds, here.

For today's prompt, have a character learn they have more time than expected. Maybe your character is a defense lawyer who is trying to find the key evidence that will help their client, but time has run out, and it's time to face the judge and jury without. Only, wait a moment, court is canceled for the day (for whatever reason, maybe the judge has a cold), and now your character has a little more time to achieve their objective.

(Plot Twist Story Prompts: Even Less.)

Of course, this plot twist could also give the antagonist extra time as well. Or the extra time could complicate some other goal your character has. So extra time is not immediately a benefit to your character, even if it seems like one when they first learn they have more time.

On one level, extra time seems to release the pressure, but that's the perfect time to turn the screws in other ways. A student finds out they have more time to study for their test, but the new test time conflicts with meeting their love interest at the library. One pressure decreases while the other increases. C'est la vie!

So have a character learn they have more time than expected, 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.