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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43216
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43216
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

One option is to move the twist even earlier in your story! If you want to focus primarily on Hero 2, compress Hero 1's journey into just the prologue. Not necessarily literally the first chapter, but the part of the story to set up your world before the inciting incident on Hero 2's journey.

The risk with waiting until a third of the way through the story to drop your twist is that your readers will become emotionally invested in Hero 1 and expect to go through the entire story with them. Then, well after your story is underway, you're taking Hero 1 away from your readers and suddenly asking them to follow along with an entirely different character. Pulling this switch off in the middle of a story is difficult and can easily alienate your readers.

However, dropping the twist at the beginning of your work avoids this problem. Your readers will still be looking for the main thread and won't feel betrayed by a short story to set up the main arc before meeting the main character. And a twist like Hero 1 becoming corrupted works well for this kind of short vignette. The best short stories have a twist ending, and in the context of a broader story, a prologue needs to ask a compelling question. Going on a short journey with a heroic character only for them to turn out to be evil accomplishes both of those goals wonderfully.

Original score: 4