Plot Twist Story Prompts: Public Transport

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, Backstory Change, here.

For today's prompt, have your characters use public transportation. Many people use public transportation without incident every day, and that's honestly how public transportation should always work. But sometimes interesting things can happen as a result of public transportation.

(5 Things Writers Should Know About Flight Attendants.)

After all, public transportation, whether by plane, train, boat, bus, sky lift, or any other method you can devise, brings people together, often in a confined area with rules for when to board and exit. As such, it can help your characters at the same time that it limits them.

A character may board a train to escape a bad situation only to find they're riding with a murderer. Or an introverted character may be forced to use the bus because their car is in the shop and may meet someone who turns their life upside down, whether in a good, bad, or both way.

So have a character take public transportation, 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.