Plot Twist Story Prompts: Initiation Project

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, Déjà Vu, here.

For today's prompt, have a character go through an initiation project of some kind. That could be for a new employee going through initiation training. Or maybe a student having to complete an "About Me" project for a language arts class. And, yes, the initiation could be something more sinister than either of these.

(Effective Repetition in Writing.)

One thing to keep in mind is that some people know (or at least think they know) what they're getting into when they begin an initiation ritual. But there are definitely plenty of examples of characters having no clue that some little task here means they're giving up their freedom there. Or that one little task is the first thread in what will become a massively complicated web.

So have a character go through an initiation of some form 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.