Plot Twist Story Prompts: No Decision

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, Small Problem, here.

For today's prompt, have a character not make a decision (when they really need to). Sometimes not making a decision can send characters spiraling off in new (and sometimes surprising) directions.

(3 Tips for Writing Cosmic Horror That Goes Beyond.)

For instance, someone is talking with two potential partners in a romance and likes both, but they eventually have to decide between the two...and can't. At least one can't take the indecision anymore and leaves, leaving the original someone with one partner (but is that person who they really want to be with?)...or none, if they both leave.

A leader in a fantasy or adventure story may know that trouble is on the way and know that there are a few different ways to face that trouble, but they can't decide what to do. Meanwhile, the trouble keeps growing from the outside and may start to explode from the inside as well (as other characters lose patience with the leader's inaction)

And maybe that's the real tension in the no decision plot twist: how the other characters handle (or don't handle) the indecisiveness.

So have a character not make a decision, 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.