Tag: plot twists

Categories
Screenwriting

Plot Driven Story Telling

Recently I began working on a new screenplay project I pitched  to a management team. For almost a year now, I’ve known the concept of the story, but for my pitch, I needed to break down some specifics.

  • Message/theme
  • character sketches
  • plot points

My focus for this project hinged on specific plot points, not only to set up my story but to develop my character and the conflict he will face; which would eventually lead to a satisfying conclusion that demonstrated my message.

Although my story focuses on one main character and his arc, the narrative is driven by a specific plot with unique twists. In a sense, this story is more focused on the plot and how it changes my character, his relationships, and his outlook on life. The plot points are critical to the telling of the story and that makes this project plot-driven.

Plot-Driven Storytelling

In the early days of filmmaking, the plot took center stage. Meaning, the plot gets more emphasis over character development; which allows plot twists, fantastic worlds, and breathtaking action to take center stage. Remember, the plot is simply a sequence of events that a character encounters as they progress from point A to point B in your story.

Laurie R. King noted, “In silent films, quite complex plots are built around action, setting, and the actors’ gestures and facial expressions, with  very few storyboards to nail down specific plot points.”

Plot-driven stories still have amazing characters for the audience to connect with; however, this approach shows more of what the characters do, rather than who they are and what they think.

This is why plot-driven storytelling works well for movies; it allows the audience to see the action and fantastic worlds the characters live in. It is especially helpful for fantasy and mystery narratives.

Examples of Plot-Driven Movies

  1. Ready Player One
  2. Jurassic Park
  3. Dark Matter
  4. Gone Girl
  5. The Da Vinci Code
  6. The Poppy War
  7. The Tigers Wife
  8. Robocop
  9. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
  10. Wedding Chasers

Keep in mind any of these films would still work with different characters going on the journey from point A to point B.  Plot-driven movies focus more on the action, plot points move the characters in the story forward more than the characters themselves.

“Mysteries and thrillers are not the same things, though they are literary siblings. Roughly put, I would say the distinction is that mysteries emphasize motive and psychology whereas thrillers rely more heavily on action and plot.”

Jon Meacham

It is the action of the plot that propels a narrative towards its conclusion.

Moving on

As the plot advances our narrative, ideally our character/characters will change in the process. Plot-driven stories often have more revelations or questions for the characters to deal with, driving the story further ahead.

“There’s almost always a point in a book where something happens that triggers the rest of the plot.”

Novelist Jonathan Carroll

Plot-driven stories are unique because they shape our character during the narrative, as opposed to the character shaping the plot.

Tips From masterclass.com on How to Write Plot-Driven Stories

  • Focus on external conflict – If you are attempting to write a plot-driven story it’s important to focus on external conflict as opposed to inward conflict as the action that drives your story forward. Internal conflict often takes place within a character and serves character-driven narratives well. External conflict, on the other hand, requires multiple forces and helps to build a driving plot.
  • Carefully outline plot points – Plot-driven stories require a tight and well develop story structure and a logical sequence. Plot is not something you find on the pages as you write. It requires a large amount of planning and foresight. You should have a detailed view of your major plot lines and arcs before you begin any plot-driven story.
  • Develop high-concept plots -High-concept stories are widely accessible storylines with clear and communicable plots. These stories are often found in screenwriting and film. Screenwriters use a high-concept plot as the driving force in a thriller or other plot-driven film. These premises are a good place to start for a plot-driven story.
  • Include plot twists – A good story should subvert audience expectations by including multiple subplots and unexpected storylines. Once you have a cohesive plot drawn out, think about ways you can surprise your reader and push back what they expect in a story by introducing a plot twist.

Ideally, these tips will change our character all the while advancing our plot towards a satisfying conclusion. Plot points change our character, reveal truth, and subplots in plot-driven storytelling!

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJonhson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Mystery/Thriller/Suspense

A Few Good (Plot) Twists

mystery suspense thriller

Good plot twists can make or break our story. While twists are important to all fiction writing, they are key to the mystery, suspense, and thriller genre. Let’s make our novels an enjoyable journey where nothing is as it seems, no thread is easily untangled, and no question conveniently answered

What is a Plot Twist?

According to Goodreads.com, “mystery-thrillers are stories with twists and turns that keep you on your toes guessing about the truth, the POV’s truth, and about what will happen next.”

Literaryterms.net describes plot twists as an unsuspected occurrence or turn of events in the story that completely changes the direction or outcome of the plot from the direction it was likely to go.

Twists introduce unexpected change. Great ones make excellent page-turners worthy of our readers’ time and money. They push the predictable and formulaic novel into the innovative realm, sparking imagination and interest.

Plot Twist Examples

Even though Agatha Christie died in 1976, her great use of plot twists contributes to the continued popularity of her 66 novels and 14 short story collections.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), Christie’s breakout novel, adds twists to the previously accept ‘rules’ of writing fiction. The results revolutionize mystery writing. She includes the narrator committing the murder, and makes the least likely person into a criminal. A range of meek and mild characters may all be hiding a mysterious past or dangerous secret.

Murder on the Orient Express (1934) uses the environment, a train trapped in a snowdrift, to make her twist work. She limits the number of potential suspects. Spoiler! The reader eventually discovers almost everyone aboard the train plays a part in the murder.

In And Then There Were None (1939) an island provides the setting where the group of characters are trapped together. They all hold secrets and everyone supposedly dies. Spoiler! One of the victims actually fakes their death and is the murderer.

Why are Plot Twists Important?

Twists push away the predictable aspects in our chapters and reel in the suspense. They keep our mysterious murderer or evil antagonist undetected and the tension high until the final page.

According to Rachel Poli in her June 2017 blog post, The Importance Of Plot Twists, good ones reveal something big. They allow something unexpected to happen, and expertly use foreshadowing and red herrings. Twists keep the story full of tension, suspenseful, shocking, and revealing without appearing random.

Readers of the mystery, suspense, thriller genre love the challenge of solving our novel’s puzzle. Surprise turns keep them sitting on the edge of their seat, turning pages, immersed in the plot. Never give them a reason to close the book and walk away.

Conclusion

Plot twists can determine the success or failure of our story. We want reader satisfaction, positive reviews, and book sales or the eye of an agent or publisher. Incorporating this literary device is a skill we can learn and enhance with each manuscript we craft. Readers will reap the benefits, and gladly dive into the delightful read you and your stories provide.

Embrace the twist!

Write well, my friends.

PJ Gover

PJ Gover encourages her readers to live the thrill one story at a time. She wrote her first thriller at age nine, all of six pages, but only returned to creating suspense/thrillers years later after unearthing her deceased father’s secret work designing missiles for the government. After fifteen writing awards her high school English teacher must be shaking her head in disbelief. A ranch in Texas serves as home base. Offer her well-crafted chili rellenos or anything gluten-free and you’ll have a friend for life. Jim Hart of Hartline Literary represents PJ.

She’d love to hear from you!

Categories
Screenwriting

Plot Twist?

Before I began writing my current W.I.P I knew exactly who my protagonist and antagonist were. I knew how they were connected and when and how I would introduce them. The setup for my story was obviously act one.

But, the preparation and this information left me with a bigger problem: how to keep my audience interested all the way until the end of act three. That’s 70 pages or about an hour and 10 minutes of screen time.

Since my audience would have already met the bad guy in act one, I feared that I gave away too much information too soon. So I had to figure out how to trick my audience to keep them interested in my narrative. Then I remembered the key aspects of keeping an audience engaged

  • Conflict.
  • Relevance.
  • Theme.

In this case, its not about getting to the end of the story/destination; it’s more about how we get there and why we need to. Plotting a story should be interesting and challenging for both us and our characters.

As summer sets in a lot of people are planning on taking road trips. Many simply want to go from home to the destination, while others like myself like the little detours or pit-stops along the trip. They make the journey more interesting.

Easy paths in a narrative are boring, that’s why they need drama to keep us engaged. Life is full of drama, our stories should be as well.

Plot Twists?

Bad storytelling is like having a heartbeat that flatlines, there’s no life in it. Each ripple or obstacle in a storyline gives our characters purpose to continue on the journey. If things get too easy there’s no need to continue on in the plot.

Don’t let your story flatline. Screenwriting legend and teacher Scott Myers explains, “We WANT to see our story’s Protagonist struggle to overcome obstacles along the way. It makes for a more interesting read, the plot filled with twists and turns.”1

Robert McKee notes, “The final cause for the decline of story runs very deep. Values, the positive/negative charges of life, are all at the soul of our art. The writer shapes story around a perception of what’s worth living for, what’s worth dying for.”2

The charge of these values should change from beginning to end, ideally from scene to scene. Each change of charge represents a change in character or a change in our story, and these lead to character growth.

Each change of charge is a turning point in our story. Turning points are necessary to keep our stories from flatlining. Screenwriters have several ways to accomplish turning points.

  1. Roadblocks.
  2. Complications.
  3. Reversals.
  4. Plot twists.

  Turning points are a great way to keep the momentum in our stories going forward, they keep our audience on their toes and interested in our narrative. Without turning points and obstacles, stories just coast along from point A to point B in a straight line, which is pretty boring if you ask me.

Obstacles?

In storytelling, we know the journey should take us on an adventure. Whether the journey is one of self-discovery, self-sacrifice, or fulfillment, the obstacles we encounter along the way make the destination worth it.

When a story is told correctly, the audience connects with it. We are challenged along with the characters. Ideally, we will grow, grieve, and love right along with our favorite characters as they overcome whatever obstacle blocks their way. Below are a few of my favorite movies with plot twists.

Don’t make the journey to easy, it’ll bore everyone involved. Sometimes the biggest obstacle for a screenwriter faces in getting their scripts produced is the writer themselves—and that’s a plot twist.

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at Spiritual Perspectives of Da Single Guy and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

1  https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/complications-reversals-and-roadblocks-1515facefba

2  Mckee, R 1997 (Story) HarpercollinsBooks, page 17.

Categories
The Writer's PenCase

Plot Twists – Part IV

The Writer's PenCase

We’ve been looking at crafting plot twists. #amwriting #plottwists [bctt tweet=”Create a jaw-dropping plot twist by convincing your reader your story world is exactly how it should be” username=”@donnalhsmith @a3forme”].

Continue reading “Plot Twists – Part IV”
Categories
The Writer's PenCase

Plot Twists –– Part III

The Writer's PenCase

Continuing our look at crafting a spectacular plot twist, this time we’ll look in detail at a couple of the “tips” mentioned last time. #amwriting #plottwists [bctt tweet=”What questions will you ask yourself to maximize reader satisfaction?” username=”@donnalhsmith @a3forme”] What questions will you ask yourself to maximize reader satisfaction?

 

Continue reading “Plot Twists –– Part III”
Categories
The Writer's PenCase

Plot Twists—Part II

The Writer's PenCase

Last time we talked about all the elements needed to create a stunning plot twist. This time, we’ll talk about reader reactions and other tips to create a plot twist they’ll never forget.

[bctt tweet=”Readers have one of three reactions to a plot twist: 1) “No way!” 2) “Huh. Nice!” and 3) “Oh, yeah!” “]#plottwists #amwriting

“No Way!”

With the “No Way!” reaction, you’ll structure your plot twist with certainty that what they read is the only way it could have turned out. It was the only possible solution.

“Huh. Nice!”

Lead your readers into uncertainty. Cloud the clues, the issues, and disguise the ending, so the reader has no clue where you’re taking them. Make sure it’s compelling enough to follow, throw in those suspicions and red herrings. You don’t want them figuring out your twist ahead of time.

twist“Oh, yeah!”

Here’s where cleverness leads the way. You’ll want to make sure earlier on your story that you show the special thing the protagonist has available to him/her, but they’ve forgotten about until that crucial moment when they use that to get themselves out of their predicament.

Here are a few questions to ask your manuscript regarding twists and turns in your plot.

  1. Where do I need to shade the details and foreshadowing so the twist is the most credible, inevitable ending to my story?
  2. What clues or evidence do I need to include to make the story stand on its own without the twist?
  3. Is the story improved by the twist? In other words, is it richer and more meaningful? If not, how can I construct the twist so that it adds depth to the story?
  4. How can I use this twist to both turn the story on its head and move it in a more satisfying direction?

Here are a few more tips:

  1. [bctt tweet=”More tips for a spectacular plot twist: 1.Create multiple worlds of inevitability; 2.Turn expectations on their head; 3.Eliminate the obvious; 4.Redirect suspicion; 5.Avoid gimmicks; 6.Write toward your readers’ reaction.”]

Have you had any of these reactions when you read a good plot twist? Which one(s)? Leave a comment and let me know. #amwriting #plottwists

Categories
The Writer's PenCase

Plot Twists – Part I

Plot Twists

[bctt tweet=”Four elements to plot twists: 1) unexpected, 2) inevitable, 3) an escalation of what preceded it, and 4) a revelation that adds meaning. (from @StevenJames”] to what has already occurred. #amwriting #unforgettablefiction

Inevitable and Surprising

Inevitable: There is only one possible conclusion to the story. It’s believable to readers, and when they get to it, they see that everything in the story up until then has been pointing toward that ending, rather than the one they were predicting and anticipating.

Surprising: It’s a conclusion that readers don’t see coming but that ends up not only being reasonable but more logical than any other possible ending. It’s an ending free of gimmicks, one that both shocks and delights even the most discerning reader.

A twist doesn’t just move the story forward; it unravels it and then rethreads it at the same time, giving more meaning to it. Readers find out that the story is deeper, richer, and more multilayered than they ever imagined.

TwistExpectations

Turn expectations on their head. At first you’ll play to those expectations, so readers will think they know where things are going. Then, suddenly, you’ll turn those expectations against them to create the twist.

I have a plot twist in “Meghan’s Choice” regarding Meghan and Doctor Scott Allison. I can’t reveal it, and I can’t take credit for it. My mentor DiAnn Mills, gave me the idea, and it’s resolution. Let’s just say there is blackmail involved.

[bctt tweet=”Five types of plot twists: 1) Identity, 2) Awareness, 3) Complexity, 4) Peril, and 5) Cleverness from @StevenJames”]

Identity

“Your protagonist (or your reader, or both) realizes he’s not who he thought he was…” Maybe she’s insane, maybe she’s in someone else’s dream, maybe he’s a monster. “This discovery could come at the beginning of the story, setting it up for a redemptive ending or at the climax, creating a dramatic plunge at the end…”

Awareness

“The world isn’t what your protagonist thought it was. He’s not on Earth, he’s on another planet, or he thinks he’s arrived in heaven in the afterlife, but discovers he’s really in hell.”

Complexity

“The heist, confidence game, or sting operation has a whole level of intrigue that wasn’t evident throughout the story.” Maybe the hero knows something about the bad guys we don’t. “Curiosity about how things will move forward drives readers to keep reading.”

Peril

“The real danger isn’t where you though it was.” The hunter is the hunted, the spy’s partner is a double agent, the protagonist’s daughter is a terrorist. These are ideas to get your creative juices going.

Cleverness

Now this is a funny way of saying it, but “the detective (or villain) was really one step ahead of the villain (or detective) the whole time and has set a trap that the other guy, and readers, didn’t see coming.” (Remember, the detective must solve the crime before readers do, or they’ll think they’re smarter than he is.)

What are some of your favorite plot twists you’ve either seen in a movie or read in a book? #amwriting #plottwists Leave a comment and let me know.