Bridge Of Writing (Domination #2), DeYtH Banger [read my book .TXT] 📗

of the scene stronger?

Just make sure that whichever POV you choose, it serves the purpose of your scene (e.g. to show the ruthlessness of the killer) first.

8: Use multiple viewpoint characters to drive your plot
Make sure each character’s arc adds to an approaching end-point in a meaningful way.

To make the individual points of view in your novel all drive the plot, remember to:

Leave off each character’s section at a place of high interest: There could be an impending discovery or confrontation, an important date or meeting, or some other momentous event that the reader wants to see unfold
Keep subplots relevant: Don’t weaken narrative drive with irrelevant subplots that ‘stall the story’ (as Sarah Cradit advises here). Plan what consequences each subplot will have for other viewpoint characters and their goals before you spend time drafting the meat of the scene
Plan how viewpoint characters’ paths cross: As Janice Hardy says, ask yourself ‘What is the purpose of the other POVs? What do they bring to the main storyline or conflict?…Who is responsible for resolving the core conflict? How do the other POVs help? (or hinder)?’
Writing a novel using multiple points of view is complex. Using the tips above should help you to create characters who add richness and extra perspectives to your fictional world.

PLOT TWISTS: PRACTICAL STEPS TO PULLING THE RUG OUT

 

PLOT TWISTS: PRACTICAL STEPS TO PULLING THE RUG OUT

1. Eliminate the obvious

When coming up with the climax to your story, discard every possible solution you can think of for your protagonist to succeed.

Then think of some more.

And discard those, too.

You’re trying to create an ending that’s so unforeseen that if a million people read your book, not one of them would guess how it ends (or how it will get to the end), but when they finally come to it, every one of those people would think, Yes! That makes perfect sense! Why didn’t I see that coming?

The more impossible the climax is for your protagonist to overcome, the more believable and inevitable the escape or solution needs to be. No reader should anticipate it, but everyone should nod and smile when it happens. No one guesses, everyone nods. That’s what you’re shooting for.

While writing, ask yourself:

What do I need to change to create a more believable world for each separate twist I’m including?

How can I drop the gimmicks and depend more on the strength of the narrative to build my twist?

Will readers have to “put up with” the story that’s being told in anticipation of a twist ending, or will they enjoy it even more because of the twist? How can I improve the pretwist story?

How can I make better use of the clues that prove the logic of the surface story to create the twist and bring more continuity to the story—but only after the twist is revealed?

2. Redirect suspicion

When you work on your narrative, constantly ask yourself what readers are expecting and hoping for at this moment in the story. Then keep twisting the story into new directions that both shock and delight them.

To keep readers from noticing clues, bury them in the emotion or action of another section. For example, in an adventure novel, offhandedly mention something during a chase scene, while readers’ attention is on the action, not the revelation. Use red herrings, dead ends, and foils. Bury clues in discussions of something else.

While writing, ask yourself:

How can I do a better job of burying the clues readers need to have in order to accept the ending? Where do I need to bring those clues to the surface?

How can I play expectations based on genre conventions against readers to get them to suspect the wrong person as the villain or antagonist?

3. Avoid gimmicks

Readers want their emotional investment to pay off. The twist should never occur in a way that makes them feel tricked, deceived, or insulted. Great twists always deepen, never cheapen, readers’ investment in the story.

This is why dream sequences typically don’t work—the protagonist thinks she’s in a terrible mess, then wakes up and realizes it was all just a dream. These aren’t twists because they almost never escalate the story but often do the very opposite, revealing to readers that things weren’t really that bad after all (de-escalation). Showing a character experiencing a harrowing or frightening experience and then having him wake up from a dream is not a twist; it’s a tired cliché.

How do you solve this? Simply tell the reader it’s a dream beforehand. It can be just as frightening without de-escalating the story’s tension, and it can also end in a way that’s not predictable.

While writing, ask yourself:

Will readers feel tricked, deceived, or insulted by this twist? If so, how can I better respect their ability to guess the ending of my story?

Have I inadvertently relied on clichés or on any plot turning points that have appeared in other books or movies? How can I recast the story so it’s fresh and original?

4. Write toward your readers’ reaction.

The way you want your readers to respond will determine the way you set up your twist. Three different types of twists all result in different reactions by readers: (1) “No way!” (2) “Huh. Nice!” and (3) “Oh, yeah!”

When aiming for the “No way!” response, you’ll want to lead readers into certainty. You want them to think that there’s only one possible solution to the story.

The more you can convince them that the story world you’ve portrayed is exactly as it appears to be—that only one outcome to the novel is possible—the more you’ll make their jaws drop when you show them that things were not as they appeared to be at all. If the twist is satisfying, credible, and inevitable based on what has preceded it, readers will gasp and exclaim, “No way! That’s awesome! I can’t believe he got that one past me.”

With the “Huh. Nice!” ending, you want to lead readers into uncertainty. Basically, they’ll be thinking, “Man, I have no idea where this is going.” When writing for this response, you’ll create an unbalanced, uncertain world. You don’t want readers to suspect only one person as the villain but many people. Only when the true villain is revealed will readers see that everything was pointing in that direction all along.

Finally, if you’re shooting for the “Oh, yeah!” reaction, you’ll want to emphasize the cleverness with which the main character gets out of the seemingly impossible-to-escape-from climax. Often we do that by allowing him to use a special gift, skill, or emblem that has been shown to readers earlier but that they aren’t thinking about when they reach the climax. Then, when the protagonist pulls it out, readers remember: “Yes! That’s right! He carries a can of shark repellent in his wetsuit! I forgot all about that!”

Relentlessly escalate your story while keeping it believable, surprising, and deeper than it appears.

While writing, ask yourself:

If I want to shock readers with the twist, have I led them into certainty as they try to predict the ending?

If I want readers to suspect a number of different endings, have I satisfactorily built up all the potential outcomes?

If I want readers to cheer at the ending, have I (1) created a seemingly impossible situation for the protagonist to escape from or conquer or (2) allowed the protagonist to persevere through wit or grit rather than with the help of someone else (that is, deus ex machina)?

How to Write a Mind-Blowing Plot Twist

 Plot twists change how your audience thinks about your story by blowing their minds. They become feverish, glued to the page with anticipation, waiting to see how the narrative changes because of the twist. The absolute best plot twists stick with your readers for years. Every author wants to have their audience feel this way about their writing. Yet, many times their plot twists fall flat. Instead of igniting passion, their plot twists have people yawn. The question is: how do you write awe-inspiring plot twists? First, we must look at the different types. (Warning: Spoiler alert for Primal Fear, The Fault in Our Stars, and The Hound of Baskervilles!)

 

 

Types of Plot Twists
In general, there are three types of plot twists.

"Revealing" plot twists lead to an answer muddled in uncertainty in the story.
"Shocking" plot twists completely reverse the truth mentioned in the story.
"Clever" plot twists use the constraints of the story to extract an interesting twist.
Each plot twist has a different effect on your audience. Yet, there is only one true difference in each type of plot twist.

It is how you twist your reader's expectations.

Your readers expect certain things to happen in your narrative. Like, your readers assume a certain level of honesty. But this will almost never be true. Will everything said in your story be true? Will everyone in your story have good intentions? Will everyone meet their goals?

Of course not. If you did, you'd have a boring story.

As a writer, you must take advantage of these assumptions.

You can do one of two things with these expectations:

You can prove the assumption to be false and introduce the actual reality. William Diehl demonstrates this concept in his novel Primal Fear. In Primal Fear, a mentally unstable boy named Aaron Stampler manages to avoid getting jail time for murder on the grounds of being insane. Yet, in the last scene of the book, it is revealed that Stampler lied about his mental condition to avoid being jailed. Since he cannot be tried for the same crime twice, he will escape with no penalties.
You can also prove the assumptions to be true, but in a different way. These types of plot twists are more subtle, but can still blow your reader's mind. For example, in John Green's best-selling novel The Fault in Our Stars, people know that the romance between the two cancer-survivors cannot last. Green spends the majority of the novel foreshadowing the main character's death, when it was her love interest that would pass.
Twisting your reader's expectations hooks them to your writing. Here are five different ways to produce this effect:

1. Think of the Obvious
When drafting out your narrative, think of everything that jumps out at you. This includes any lies, betrayals, secret lovers or twin brothers that come to mind. There's no wrong ideas in this stage; the goal is to get your ideas on paper.

Once you compile your list, there are three things you can do.

Throw them out. Some of your ideas will be cliched, too vague, make no sense, or are too obvious. They will make your reader groan in