Plot Twist Story Prompts: Unexpected Sibling

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, Dance Time, here.

For today's prompt, produce an unexpected sibling in your story. Brothers and sisters, even if they're from another mother or mister, are often fun for stories even when they're expected and known commodities. They often have a connection to characters that other people do not. But how much more fun when the sibling is unexpected?

(3 Tips on How to Write Relatable Families in Fiction.)

For instance, imagine a character is going along living their life to its fullest when they suddenly encounter a twin that was whisked away (for whatever reason) at birth. What does that mean for the original character? What does it mean for the newfound sibling? And what about everyone else in the story? Woah! (And imagine if there are twins who have an unexpected triplet? Obscure reference, but what if Nathan Jr. never gets returned in Raising Arizona?)

Another possibility is that the unexpected sibling is a half-sibling (either from the dad or mom, who themselves may be AWOL). And in all cases of the unexpected sibling plot twist, everyone has to be wondering about possible agendas and motives; plus, are the unexpected siblings legit? These are stories that tend to write themselves.

So produce an unexpected sibling in your story, 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.

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