Plot Twist Story Prompts: New Person

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, Blocked Passage, here.

For today's prompt, insert a new person in the story. The new person may be a force for good or vessel for evil, a seemingly random bystander or someone with an agenda. But he, she, or it can play a major role in sending your story in a new direction.

One consequence of inserting a new person in the story is that you have a new character and personality to define, including what their motivations may be in relation to the direction of the story. But a new person also gives established characters a chance to reveal more about themselves too.

(11 Secrets to Writing an Effective Character Description.)

One character may see the new person as a great addition. Another character may see the new person as a threat. Other characters may completely disregard the new person, underestimating the new person's capacity for heroism or villainy.

As such, a new person offers so many new opportunities to your story, whether that's increasing tension, humor, fear, or other emotions. In many ways, a new person is a new mystery—for the reader, the other characters, and even the writer.

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If you want to learn how to write a story, but aren't quite ready yet to hunker down and write 10,000 words or so a week, this is the course for you. Build Your Novel Scene by Scene will offer you the impetus, the guidance, the support, and the deadline you need to finally stop talking, start writing, and, ultimately, complete that novel you always said you wanted to write.

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