The Story Twist

The story twist is a turning point or new bit of information that changes the reader's perception of the story.

The twist can be at the end like in THE SIXTH SENSE where we realize that Bruce Willis' character is not only helping the little boy deal with his ability to see ghosts, Willis is a ghost himself, so we have to rethink the movie to see that this truth has been there the whole time, but we've not noticed it.

A twist can also be within the story. For example, the reader discovers halfway through the novel that the hero's sidekick is really the bad guy, and everything the hero thinks he's learned or gained is now suspect.

One of my favorite types of twist is the expectation reversal. Sometimes, this involves the writer using a popular story trope like the marriage of convenience.

When the reader realizes this trope is being used, she will expect it to follow the standard pattern of the pretend marriage-- the characters will avoid sexual and emotional entanglement, they will gradually become emotionally and sexually closer, then their sham marriage will become a real marriage.

With the expectation reversal, the trope is set up, but the characters will do the exact opposite of what is expected. For example, the sexual relationship they've agreed not to have may happen almost immediately when they get drunk on their wedding night.

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK has another excellent example. Indiana Jones is chasing after the men who have kidnapped his girl, and a huge bad guy with an enormous sword steps in front of him. The expectation is that Indie will pull out his sword, and they will fight.

Instead, pragmatic Indie pulls out his gun and shoots the man so he can continue after the girl. The big fight trope is not only skewered, but also the viewer realizes that Indie doesn't buy into the heroic yet stupid belief that a fight must be between equals with equal weapons no matter what the cost. For Indie, the girl's life is more important than the heroic ideal of an equal fight.

One of the most important things to remember about using a story twist is that the story itself must hold together and have depth of character and plot without the plot twist. The twist is the cherry on top of the sundae, not the sundae itself.

The other thing to remember is that you have to play fair with the reader and give them bits of information that will give them little clues to the big twist. It shouldn't appear arbitrary or come from thin air.

If Bruce Willis' ghost character interacted with live people as well as with the little boy, the viewer would have felt cheated. Instead, they think back to him talking to a wife who is ignoring him, not because their marriage is in trouble, but because he is dead, and she can't see him, and the viewer will gasp with surprise and wince at missing all those clues to what was really happening.

If you can make the reader gasp with surprise and rethink what she's read, your twist has worked.

Links of Interest

SHOULD YOU PRODUCE AN AUDIO BOOK?

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2017/04/producing-your-books-in-audio-part-one.html

LINKS TO VARIOUS INFORMATIONAL AND RESEARCH SITES:

http://writershelpingwriters.net/2017/04/angelas-fantastic-finds-for-writers/

HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE:

https://janefriedman.com/amazon-author-central-page/

BAD GUYS WHO AREN’T THE ANTAGONIST:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2010/02/you-got-ta-have-enemies.html

GOOD AND BAD EXPOSITION IN DIALOGUE:

http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/write-not-write-expository-dialogue/

CREATING A GOOD BOOK COVER:

http://writerunboxed.com/2017/04/29/how-to-create-a-book-cover-that-connects-with-readers

CREATING AN EBOOK BOX SET:

https://buildbookbuzz.com/how-to-create-an-e-book-box-set/

GETTING YOUR RIGHTS BACK ON A TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHED BOOK:

http://selfpublishingadvice.org/publishing-a-case-study-of-getting-back-your-rights-to-a-trade-published-book/

WHEN YOUR STORY GETS STUCK:

http://authorkristenlamb.com/2017/04/your-story-has-hit-a-wall-what-now/

DEVELOPING A SERIES HERO:

https://killzoneblog.com/2017/04/how-i-developed-my-series-hero.html

CREATING A SUCCESSFUL FIRST CHAPTER:

http://allwritefictionadvice.blogspot.com/2017/04/making-first-chapters-successful-part-1.html

SECONDARY AND MINOR CHARACTERS:

http://i0.wp.com/inkandquills.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/The-Simple-Secret-to-Figuring-Out-How-Much-Developtment-Your-Minor-Character-Needs.png

WAYS TO TELL IF THE PLOT IS CONTRIVED:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2017/05/6-ways-to-identify-contrived-plot.html

ONLINE QUERY SWAP:

http://tonyriches.blogspot.com/2017/05/get-free-query-help-at-query-swap-with.html

HISTORICAL MAPS OF NEW YORK CITY:

https://hyperallergic.com/371841/nypl-navigates-to-another-time-and-place/

OVERLY COMPLEX PLOTS:

http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/common-writing-mistakes-overly-complex-plots/

THEME AND STORYTELLING INTENT:

https://killzoneblog.com/2017/05/theme-as-a-storytelling-intention.html

THE PROBLEM WITH KICKING BUTT IN A VICTORIAN GOWN:

http://www.tor.com/2017/05/03/how-to-do-karate-in-a-victorian-dress/

NEW NEWSLETTER WITH WRITING TIPS:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2017/05/announcing-fiction-university-newsletter.html

MAGIC:

http://writerunboxed.com/2017/05/03/spells-palls-and-poisoned-apples

Making a Long Story Short

QUESTION: My novel is way too long. Someone suggested I cut four lines off every page instead of trying to cut whole chapters, etc.

Anyone who can do that needs to work on their writing skills because they are writing weak, bloated prose.

There are other ways to cut length.

From working with writers over the years, I'd say that the primary thing most writers need to cut is writer information. We sometimes do our thinking on the page before we write down what the reader needs to see, and we fail to cut that out.

Writers also tend toward too much introspection. If all a character is doing in a scene is thinking about other things, get rid of that scene and insert that information into dialogue.

The great Phyllis Whitney once said that the only reason a character should be folding laundry and thinking is so an ax murderer can sneak up on her, and the reader knows this through subtle clues.

There's also the rule of three. If a scene doesn't contain at least one or two plot points (information or events which move the plot forward), and one or two character points (important character information) so that you have at least three points total, then it should be tossed, and whatever points included in that scene should be added to another scene.

Another way to consider the value of a scene is to ask yourself if it moves the main character toward his novel and/or emotional goal.  If it doesn’t, that scene can be removed.  

For major cuts, you can also consolidate several secondary characters into one character, or a subplot can be simplified or removed if it doesn't influence the major plot or the influence can be moved to another subplot.

Happy cutting!

Links of Interest

TESTING YOUR STORY’S EMOTIONAL STAKES:

http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/make-sure-story-emotional-stakes/

SHOWING NOT TELLING YOUR CHARACTER:

https://killzoneblog.com/2017/04/key-ways-to-show-your-character-not-tell-on-him-first-page-critique-palm-beach-nasty.html

MAKING YOUR READER BELIEVE THE UNBELIEVABLE:

http://writerunboxed.com/2017/04/23/how-to-make-your-readers-believe-the-unbelievable-or-the-importance-of-facts-in-fiction

HOW NOT TO START YOUR NOVEL:

http://annerallen.com/how-not-start-your-novel-6-no-nos/

FIVE COMMON LEGAL MYTHS ABOUT WRITING:

https://www.bookworks.com/2017/04/legal-myths-debunked-writers-authors/

HOW TO SURVIVE A CAR AMBUSH:

http://thrillwriting.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-great-escape-surviving-car-ambush.html

MAKING YOUR PROSE MORE VISUAL:

http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/4-reasons-written-fiction-must-visual/

MAKING SURE YOUR BOOK COVER IS A WINNER:

https://writersedit.com/7-essential-tips-ensure-book-cover-winner/

COMMON EDITING ISSUES:

http://jamigold.com/2017/04/4-common-copy-editing-issues-to-watch-for-guest-julie-glover/

FORENSICS, PACEMAKER INFO CAN BE USED AGAINST YOU:

https://writersforensicsblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/25/can-your-pacemaker-snitch-on-you

THE FIFTEEN BEST EMAIL MARKETING SERVICES FOR AUTHORS:

http://the-digital-reader.com/2017/04/25/best-fifteen-email-marketing-services-grow-huge-audience/

MAKE YOUR HERO SUFFER:

http://www.stevenpressfield.com/2017/04/make-your-hero-suffer-2

COMMON CHARACTER PITFALLS AND HOW TO FIX THEM:

http://romanceuniversity.org/2017/04/26/top-five-character-pitfalls-and-ways-to-avoid-them-by-robin-gianna/

A QUICK GUIDE TO PRICING YOUR EBOOK:

https://buildbookbuzz.com/pricing-your-e-book/

FACEBOOK PROMOTION:

http://authorkristenlamb.com/2017/04/feeling-invisible-on-facebook-hows-your-organic-reach/

The Fourth Wall

In playwriting and stage performance, there’s a convention called the fourth wall.  Think of the stage as a room with three walls that contain the action.  The fourth wall is the invisible wall between the room and the audience who views the action through that invisible fourth wall.  The characters on the stage are unaware of that fourth wall and that they are observed.

If a character addresses the audience, they are breaking that fourth wall and acknowledging that what the audience sees isn’t real. Shakespeare broke the fourth wall many times at the ends of his comedies to ask for the audience’s applause.  

The fourth wall is often broken in today’s sitcoms and, occasionally, in TV dramas in a playful manner through dialogue directed at the audience but spoken to another character.  On a few rare occasions, I have seen a character actually wink or smirk at the audience/camera breaking the fourth wall for a few moments before the fourth wall comes back.  This is usually done when a show is making fun of itself and its conventions.  CASTLE and a few playful episodes of SUPERNATURAL have used this method during metafiction moments.  (Metafiction: Literary/performance techniques that draw the viewer/reader’s attention to the fact that he is reading/watching.  For more detail, go here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metafiction ) 

Early novelists had a problem with the concept of the fourth wall and the use of narrative and viewpoint to tell the story.  Novels like Richardson’s PAMELA were told in the form of letters to make up for no narrative voice.  Later novels used an omniscient narrator who saw all the action, the character’s thoughts, and dialogue and related it to the reader.  Sometimes, the narrator spoke directly to the reader with such comments as “Do not despair, gentle reader, for soon, Becky shall have her comeuppance.”

Over time, the omniscient narrator has all but disappeared, particularly in genre novels, and the story is now told in the close viewpoint of one or more characters.  

In some stories, the character looks back on the past and reflects on what has happened as they relate what happened.  This method is particularly popular in older style mysteries in the “had I but known” style.  Example: Had I but known that going to that party would destroy my happiness, I wouldn’t have gone, but I did and here’s the disaster that happened.  Writers like Dick Francis, Gothic romance authors, and earlier romantic suspense authors have employed the story retold method to good effect.  

Most novels now have the reader inside the character’s head in the present moment so she’s privy to thoughts and what the character sees and hears, but the narrative element is invisible.  The reader can only see and know what the character does.  

To break that invisible fourth wall has always been considered bad writing because it pulls the reader from the story.  

Recently, however, I’ve read several novels where the author deliberately breaks that fourth wall at some moment in the story by letting the viewpoint character talk directly to the reader.  

Since the writer has, until that moment, written a competent book, I’m assuming this is a deliberate narrative choice.

Is this a good thing?  I don’t think so because it pulls the reader out of the book.

Is it a probable change in narrative technique?  That remains to be seen.  

Links of Interest

IS OUR PROTAGONIST STRONG ENOUGH TO DRIVE OUR STORY?

http://jamigold.com/2017/04/protagonist-boot-camp-characters-who-drive-a-story/

IS KINDLE UNLIMITED WORTH ITS LIMITATIONS?

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2017/04/kindle-unlimited-is-it-worth-it.html

APPLICATIONS THAT CREATE EBOOKS:

http://the-digital-reader.com/2017/04/13/six-apps-help-make-ebooks/

CHOOSING THE RIGHT PROTAG:

http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/make-sure-choose-right-protagonist/

WHY READERS STOP READING:

http://writershelpingwriters.net/2017/04/why-do-readers-stop-reading/

HOW TO GIVE A BOOK READING:

http://annerallen.com/how-to-give-a-book-reading/

SHOWING A CHARACTER’S MOTIVATION FOR CHANGE:

https://killzoneblog.com/2017/04/giving-characters-the-courage-to-change.html

CONTRASTING DESCRIPTION:

http://allwritefictionadvice.blogspot.com/2017/04/creating-contrasting-description.html

APPLICATIONS TO  HELP YOUR WRITING:

http://the-digital-reader.com/2017/04/15/thirteen-great-tools-will-make-writing-shine/

MOVING THE PLOT:

http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/mean-move-plot/

FIXING A STUCK SCENE:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2017/04/stuck-on-scene-try-this-trick.html

WHAT MAKES A LITERARY STORY MEMORABLE:

http://writerunboxed.com/2017/04/19/what-makes-a-novel-memorable/

WRITING A DYNAMIC CHARACTER:

https://blog.reedsy.com/dynamic-character

Fantasy and Reality in Our Writing

In my dream, I walked into the snack bar of the student union of my alma mater. Daniel, the hero of my first novel, sat at one of the tables. He melted me with a sexy megawatt smile and purred, "Hello, Penn."

The awake part of me cringed--Penn was the heroine's name--and muttered, "You're going over the edge, Byerly. Writing IS a form of schizophrenia." 

"Uh..., hello, Daniel." I sat down beside him and decided, to heck with mental illness, I was going to enjoy myself. 

Even after many years, that dream remains vivid. It was my first encounter with the gray shadings between fantasy and reality in a writer's life. I know the difference between the two, every writer must. I've also learned their interplay enriches my characters and my life.

Parts of me litter my novels like confetti at a party--Tony Chaucer wore the ratty man's bathrobe I refused to stop wearing, Ariel at five snuggled with my teddy bear, and David had my vermouth dry sense of humor. Those parts help my characters live.

But each character is more than just chucks of me. They have thoughts and wisdom I've never had. 

I've borrowed Daniel's genius for quick puns and dear Nelson's serene wisdom and faith when my own was sadly lacking. In this manner, my characters have given back as much as I've given them.  Almost like real friends. 

Are you wondering what happened in that dream about sexy Daniel? We sat and discussed his own college days. You see, fantasy like reality doesn't always have the expected ending.