Plot Twist Story Prompts: No Consensus

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, Secret Society, here.

For today's prompt, have characters interpret events differently. For instance, a giant fireball streaks across the sky. Some folks interpret it as a scientific phenomenon; others see it as a sign (and even these people interpret what the sign means in a variety of ways).

(Character Conflicts That Mirror a Larger Societal Conflict.)

When everyone agrees on a course of action, it can be nice and orderly in the real world, but it makes for a boring story. This is because story thrives on conflict, and conflict thrives on a variety of strong opinions.

One of my all-time favorite movies is Night of the Living Dead. But it's not because of the zombies; rather, it's because of the lack of consensus among the people who are being threatened by the zombies. Do they board up the doors? Do they make a run for it? Do they retreat into the basement? The story is all about the lack of consensus.

So have characters interpret events differently, 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.