THE TRIALS OF A CRIME WRITER: PLANNING YOUR TWIST
One thing that always appealed to me as a crime reader, were the twists. The ones that you could never see coming, the ones that seemed to turn the whole story on its side and allow you to view things through a different lens. I always wanted to recreate that with my own work, and while with some stories I feel like I've pulled it off, with others, it's harder to quantify.
At the end of the day, twists are not just for crime fiction. While they may be the main staple of thrillers and the like, it's not the only time a story will have one. I've found through my years of reading more and more different genres, that most books will have something they hold back, and there can still be a lot of twists thrown in there, and you still get that excitement both as the author writing them, and as the reader devouring them.
But today I thought that I would give you some of my insights and thoughts about what you need to be doing when it comes to planning your own twists, whether or not that's crime writing. I will stick to that mostly because it's a subject I know better, but as I said, you can still have twists in other genres, they just might not be seen as common as the tropes in crime and thriller fiction are.
So how do you go about planning that twist? I feel like you have to take a lot into consideration because a good twist is one that people don't guess, but also one that you have foreshadowed in some way. For me, the ones that literally come out of nowhere, when there's been not even the tiniest hint, don't land as well as the ones that you can trace back, to the small pieces of information the author has given you along the way. Of course, your mileage may vary there. I know for some authors, they will create their twist around a popular trope and use that to advertise and sell the book, but for me it's not something I've ever done, so I can't speak of it.
But when it comes to planning, and implementing those twists, there seem to be a few steps you have to follow, and I'm going to try and lay them all out for you here!
STEP ONE: LAY THE GROUNDWORK
Like I said above, you need to have some kind of basis for this twist. It's no good deciding in the third act and in the big reveal that the killer has been the detective all along if you don't leave some hints along the way. If the book is in their POV, then you need to have left some blanks, some things that point to everything not being all it seems. If you don't do that, it smacks of lazy planning and writing, and a way of putting the twist in because you know no one will get it. They won't, because you've skipped the part where people can even start to have some idea and guess. It does not, generally, lead to a happy reader if you don't do this.
STEP TWO: PLANT THE SEEDS, AND REMEMBER TO WATER THEM
Like the first step, this is something you need to be doing before the twist is revealed. You need to have little snippets, here and there that will allow the reader to start questioning things. It doesn't have to be big things. It can be a piece of throwaway description, or a line of dialogue, or even a scene that doesn't quite fit until you know the full story. Whatever you do, don't water them too much, but also don't mention it right at the start and then never again. Little bits here and there are going to have those suspicions blooming in reader's minds and that's what you want.
STEP THREE: LEAVE ROOM FOR SUSPICION
By this I simply mean that you can make it so that the reader suspects a whole lot, but can't be sure of anything. If you rule someone, or something, out completely, it can close that avenue for the reader, and while that can be a great twist in itself, I've found myself enjoying the stories when I literally suspect everyone and can't quite work out who to rule out in my mind. It allows you to feel like you're right there with the detective or whoever, and might be able to spot inconsistencies that they've missed.
STEP FOUR: DON'T PROLONG THE BIG REVEAL
When it comes times to actually execute and reveal that twist, don't leave it too late. While there's a lot to be said for thrillers that have twists right at the end, and leave the reader hanging, for the main twist, there should be some resolution, otherwise you might leave your readers a tad annoyed. So whatever you do, don't leave everything to the last minute and then rush through it all. That leaves to an unsatisfying experience for the reader, and it makes the ending seem, well, rushed.
So there we go, those are my four steps when it comes to planning your twists. I wish you all the luck with your writing and planning, and I hope these help.
Any questions? Lemme know in the comments!
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