Plot Twist Story Prompts: Forced Decision

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, Item Retrieval, here.

For today's prompt, force a character to make a decision. The decision could be seemingly low stakes, like where to have dinner. Or you can ramp up the stakes and make your character decide between taking the cash or saving their friend/love interest.

(4 Types of Conflict.)

How characters handle making decisions reveals a lot about them. After all, some people seem born to make decisions without a second thought to whether they're right or wrong. Others agonize over the tiniest decisions and will shut down if given the chance. For some people, making a decision is a great fear on par with heights, public speaking, and the unknown.

In addition to revealing the strengths and weaknesses of characters, the act of forcing characters to make decisions can help amp up the stakes of a story. In a romance, a character has to choose between love interest one and love interest two. In a family drama, a character has to choose between tradition and independence. Even a seemingly low stakes decision like where to eat dinner can have profound implications if it's the scene of a crime.

So force a character to make a decision and see where that takes your story.

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