Plot Twist Story Prompts: Make Mistake

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, Family Connection, here.

For today's prompt, have a character make a mistake. In real life, people are not perfect; so they make mistakes frequently. Why should it be any different in your stories? In fact, try amping up the stakes of the mistakes your characters make to create some real dramatic tension and/or humor in your fiction.

(How to Write Flawed Characters & Antiheroes.)

Of course, there are different levels of mistakes a character can make (and repercussions). In my favorite movie It's a Wonderful Life, the local pharmacist (called a druggist in the movie) makes a mistake when filling a prescription, a mistake that would lead to someone's death if it's taken. And a young boy who witnesses the mistake has to figure out what to do. Those are high stakes.

But a lower level mistake might be a character going to the bathroom in a public place only to realize they mistakenly went into a stall for the opposite gender. Suddenly, they have to decide whether to reveal their mistake or try to sit out the situation (when they may also overhear something of interest that they can't reveal without revealing how they overheard this information). Smaller stakes, but still compelling.

So have a character make a mistake, 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.