By J Dean Pate
One of my favorite writers, Columbia’s Bill Fox – Southern Fried — would bore-in and magnify and magnify again, peculiar traits of his characters. Then he would stretch them through misguided desires or conflict into hilarious episodes that kept readers turning the page.
For me, it is a struggle to bring my characters and story to life because of being stuck in exposition mode from my days as a broadcast news writer. This leads to results at times that read like I’m writing for speed readers because I want to get the story over with, because TV copy is short.
“Once upon a time flip … everything was good flip … (oh my god, I must fix this so I’ll add in) . . . and as she held him tightly Angelica knew in that moment she and Raoul would spend eternity … sigh/throb…together.” — Yay, Yahoo!!!
My writing group has been helpful with suggestions. And I have found several books to help me find my way.
Mystery writer Jane Cleland recommends plot twists to keep readers wondering, “What happens next?”
Whether they be mysteries, a memoir or literary nonfiction, she says the story needs to pivot and turn to avoid boring readers. She says plot twists, reversals and dangers should be counterintuitive, grounded on emotion while utterly unexpected. The goal is to create intrigue and credibility by presenting evidence. Readers need to trust you are revealing emotional truths through believable incidents.
She offers the following questions as guides for developing effective TRDs:
· What does the reader expect to happen next?
· What else could logically happen? (Twist)
· What is the opposite of the readers’ expectation? (Reversal)
· Could something emotionally, physically, or spiritually frightening or dangerous occur (Danger)
· Does the TRD surprise the reader?
· Will it add tension or intrigue?
· Is it credible?
Plot Twists, Reversals and Dangers from Mastering Plot Twists, Jane K. Cleland, Writers Digest 2018 ISBN-13:978-1-4403-52331
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