Plot Twist Story Prompts: Make a Deal

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, Not Challenged, here.

For today's prompt, have a character make a deal. The deal could be with a friend, an enemy, or someone with unknown affiliations. But the big part of this plot twist is to make that deal, and then, figure out how this deal will lead to new conflict and/or drama in the future.

(2022 November Poem-A-Day Chapbook Challenge.)

For instance, two friends make a deal in which Friend A gets to borrow Friend B's leaf blower. In return, Friend B gets to borrow Friend A's car to drive to the post office (or wherever). Only, Friend B wrecks the car, and Friend A needs to pick up a relative from the airport or else.

But remember: The higher the stakes of the deal, the more readers will be invested in the outcome. Also, think about having an extremely difficult (or nearly impossible) "escape clause" that gives a character a chance at escaping a horrible deal--if they can pull off the seemingly impossible.

So have a character make a deal, 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.