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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27342
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27342
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

By definition, it is not a twist if the reader sees it coming. In fact, there is nothing worse than a plot twist that you see coming. Nothing makes a story seem more contrived than when you see the twist coming and it does.

Now, if the reader sees a twist coming and then the story actually twists the other way, that is more interesting. But it is something of a high wire act. Who is to say that the reader will keep reading when they are convinced a predictable twist is coming.

But the most important thing about a twist is that it must provide a more satisfying ending than the one that the reader was expecting. A mere zig zag is simply going to leave the story in the ditch. The twist has to provide the more satisfying and more logical outcome, the outcome that makes better sense of all that has gone before.

Twists work when you don't see them coming, and when things make so much more sense after the do. It's that second part that is both essential and tricky. You have to lay the groundwork so that the twist makes sense when it comes without telegraphing that it is coming, since a telegraphed twist is just disappointing.

Original score: 8