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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/21188
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

What makes anything in a story believable or unbelievable? Is it consistent with what we know of human nature, the laws of physics, etc? (If this is a fantasy or science fiction story, is it consistent with the laws of physics et al as this story has set them out to be?) Is it consistent with what has happened in the story up to this point?

You can often make the wildest things believable if you foreshadow them properly.

I heard an interview with a novelist once where he said that he spends a lot of his time when writing putting door in alleys. Of course he said it this way to be cryptic, but then he explained: If you say the hero is being chased by the villain, and he suddenly turns into an alley, and there's a door there that leads him to a place where he's safe, the reader is going to say, "Oh come on! He just HAPPENED to find a door that leads to safety?" But if in a previous chapter you had the hero come to that alley and find that door, and now at a crucial time he runs there and uses the door, it sounds quite plausible.

RE plot twists specifically, I'd add: they must be used sparingly. One plot twist in a story can surprise and entertain the reader. A second plot twist and the reader may say, "wow, you got me again". But beyond that, the story starts to be too unpredictable for the reader to care. I recall a book I read years ago where every chapter there was another plot twist, every chapter we were told that the person or group that we were told were the villains the previous chapter are really good guys, or somebody wasn't who they seemed, etc. After 3 or 4 of these I realized that nothing in the story could be taken at face value. By the time the writer got to the end and had his final plot twist, I was left thinking, "So is this supposed to be the truth now? Or am I supposed to understand that this is a fake too, that the reality is yet something else?" I quit caring long before I reached the end.

Original score: 5