Plot Twist Story Prompts: Strength Gone

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, Missed Appointment, here.

For today's prompt, make a character's strength disappear. If a character is usually exceptionally strong, of course, they would suddenly be very weak. If a character is usually very good with math, they suddenly can't do simple addition and subtraction. Practitioners of magic suddenly can't conjure a simple spell.

(Writing Mistakes Writers Make: Ignoring Your Weaknesses.)

The reasons for the evaporated strength could be attributed to a range of explanations. For instance, Superman tends to lose his superpowers when in the proximity of Kryptonite. A witch or wizard may be blocked from their magical powers by a spell or curse. The math genius may be under the influence of alcohol or some other drug.

This plot twist is fun, because it forces your characters to figure out new ways to accomplish goals. Instead of just relying on their strengths, they have to consider new approaches to big and small situations that they used to take for granted.

So make a character's strength disappear, 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.