Plot Twist Story Prompts: Make a Plan

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, Antagonist Reappears, here.

For today's prompt, have your characters make a plan. That is, something happens in your story, and your characters react by devising a plan to attack or counterattack the new situation. The plan could be as sophisticated as breaking into a high security bank vault or as simple as pulling off a surprise birthday party.

(Tapping Your Inner Villain.)

As the author, you can reveal the entirety of the plan, conceal the plan, or reveal everything except one key part (and this method can be great if the payoff of that key part is really exceptional). Of course, making a plan is one thing; actually pulling off a plan is something else entirely.

And that's one of the really fun things about this plot twist story prompt, because people love a good plan. After all, a good plan lays out, in a step-by-step format, how a positive outcome will come to be. Of course, even the best laid plans tend to have hiccups and hurdles. As such, this is one of the only plot twist story prompts that actually begets many more possible plot twist story prompts.

So have your characters make a plan, 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.