GUIDE TO Writing Plot Twists There are a number of diff erent ways to build up to a plot twist.
❍ Leave extremely subtle hints for the reader. The reader should not think about these clues until the very end when they realise they have been duped (tricked).
❍ Point the fi nger at someone else. Mislead your audience by arousing suspicion about another character.
❍ Reveal a character reversal. Does your hero become a villain or vice versa? Was your hero the villain all along?
❍ Open endings can be used as a gesture towards plot twists but writers need to be careful. There is a diff erence between leaving a surprising open end to a story and just leaving the reader unsatisfi ed.
Try to develop a plan for a short story that will reveal a plot twist at the end.
Short Story 9: ‘FalL’
The next short story is by Irish novelist, Emma Donoghue. In it, she creates a character based on a real person and develops a plot that is fi lled with tension, using verbs to great eff ect.
What I will learn:
to read for pleasure
‘Fall’ is inspired by Annie Edson Taylor (1838–1921), a teacher and traveller from Auburn, New York, who on 24 October 1901 was the first person to go over Niagara Falls. She hoped to make her fortune on speaking tours, but she was abandoned by her managers, impersonated by more photogenic actresses and had the barrel she used for going over the Falls stolen. She eked out a living selling pamphlets about herself and working as a clairvoyant, and died destitute in the Niagara County Infirmary twenty years after her ‘fall’.
