The Dreaded Plot Twist
Dec. 8th, 2013 09:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatAfter having finished Yours Until Dawn by Teresa Mederios - which is an average romance novel with a "dreaded" plot twist, I've come to the conclusion that plot twists are difficult to pull off. Actually its not just this novel but various others along with television serials that have brought me to this conclusion.
The trick to a good plot twist is that the audience and/or reader is surprised, yet at the same time when they think back on the plot, it makes perfect sense. Or some of the audience, have figured it out - but it works so well and furthers the plot and conflict and characters in such a way, they can't wait for it to happen.
The thing to remember with Plot Twists is that it is okay if your reader or audience figures it out ahead of time. The only thing you, the writer, should be worried about is if it tracks, it furthers the story, furthers the characters, and makes sense. Also it should take the story in a new direction or change it in an interesting way - or at the very least explain things about the characters, etc.
Examples of good plot twists include the following:
1. Star Wars
Darth Vader: Has Obi Wan told you about your father?
Luke: Yes, you killed him.
Darth Vader: No, I didn't kill him, I am your father.
That plot twist works brilliantly. It makes sense. It explains a lot of characters. And it isn't jarring.
2. The Sixth Sense - the reveal is carefully plotted out and suddenly makes the film about something completely different than what we thought. The twist makes excellent use of the unreliable narrative device. The narrator, or point of view that we've been in all along, turns out to be unreliable because the protagonist is in denial and doesn't really know what is going on. Once the pov shifts from the protagonist, to a second protagonist, the plot twists.
3. Once Upon a Time's Peter Pan plot line - where the reveal of who the villain is twists the story on its ear, along with explaining a lot about many characters and providing a new insight into an old story. It's also trackable and makes logical sense. It works within the fabric of the story itself.
4. Memento -the story uses unreliable narrator. The Prestige uses a similar device.
5. Psycho - Norman Bates is the killer, his mother is dead.
A good plot twist may make you want to re-watch a tv show or movie. Quite a few novels have them as well. Although I'm drawing a blank on titles at the moment. Atonment by Ian McEwan comes to mind, but I dislike both the writer and the book...yet it is a good plot twist that makes use, once again, of an unreliable narrator.
But you have to be careful not to fall into gimmicks with plot twists, which is what Battle Star Galatica and LOST unfortunately did - leaving the audience cranky and dissatisfied. A lame plot twist is just as bad as the dreaded one.
Examples of the Dreaded Plot Twist :
The dreaded plot twist is when you can't track it back, or it can't be figured out as you are watching or reading the novel. The writer has left so many red-herrings or misleads a long the way, that you'd have to suspend logic to figure it out or know about it ahead of time.
A really good way to know a plot twist doesn't work is if upon re-reading or re-watching, you can't quite see it and realize it makes no logical sense. It's also when the twist feels jarring or something the characters would never do, in order for the plot twist to actually happen - the characters have to go against their true natures. If it throws you out of the story - it's a bad plot twist.
This happens when writers are working overtime to fool their audience or readers - when they don't want their audience to see it ahead of time. In short they want that OMG moment, or the jaw drop.
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike's search for a soul instead of getting his chip out on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The writers were so obsessed with fooling their fandom, particularly the spoiler whores, that they went out of their way to convince the fans that Spike wanted his chip removed. Then they were stuck and had to find something to convince fans he wanted a soul at the same time. The writers also wanted to show he would actually go get one, yet needed one too. The plot twist became incredibly complex - with a lot of contradictory desires inserted within it. As a result, many fans didn't think the character needed a soul and wanted the chip removed to prove that he could choose to be good without the chip or a soul.
The tragedy of this plot twist - is they could have pulled it off if they'd been less obsessed with fooling viewers and less involved with the online fandom. This is an example of how fan interaction with the writers of a television series can have a detrimental effect on the story. It's not the fans fault, it is however the writers who got involved with the fans in a manner that was detrimental to their craft.
What happened is - yes, the twist fooled 85-90% of the viewers. But over half of those viewers got annoyed and thrown out of the story - they felt it didn't track or was out of character. It was jarring.
2. Daytime Soap Operas and Superhero Comic Books are notorious for bad plot twists. People pop up from the dead, a lead character suddenly has a kid that no one knew about...and the character's been on the series for a looong time. A character who was good, suddenly, without warning is evil and vice versa.
3. Angel the Series: Cordelia turns out to be the big bad in S3, who has manipulated everyone. Outside of the fact that it is out of character, much like the Spike plot twist, the actor wasn't along for the ride. So as a result the actor didn't sell the plot twist.
When it is revealed, it is somewhat jarring to the viewers...and upsetting, because this is a character they rooted for and were invested in. But also it doesn't quite track.
Part of the problem is they changed the story in mid-stream or retconned it. The previous writers were going in one direction and the new group decided to go in the opposite, which resulted in a jarring plot twist right out of a daytime soap.
It's better to not attempt a plot twist than to pull off a bad one. Writers who go for the plot twist to win readers and viewers - begin to use gimmicks. And the plot twists don't work.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an example of a series that started out with great plot twists, the best plot twists were actually in the Second, Third and Fifth seasons. But by S6, the writers lost track of what they were doing and didn't carefully plot it out, also they became too invested in fooling viewers. As a result two storylines, which many viewers had been anticipating were ruined. Spike's redemption and Willow's fall into dark magic. Instead of letting the stories play out naturally for the characters, they planted misleads, such as Willow's use of magic was an addiction like crack which she could easily give up, complete with withdrawl symptoms, or that Spike's redemption was predicated on him choosing to search for a soul after doing a horrible act that would convince him he needed one. Then when the redemption arcs started in S7, the writers had written themselves into a corner and didn't know how to write themselves out of it. If they'd written the character arcs organically to the character and not cared about the plot twists...this would not have happened. They focused on the wrong thing.
Once Upon A Time is an example of a series that uses the plot twist well, it furthers the characters arcs and keeps things moving. Also they are hard to predict at times. The Good Wife also does plot twists well, in fact even better than OUAT, because it uses them sparingly. Not all the time. OUAT is beginning to fall into the trap of overuse.
Atonement by Ian McEwan is an example of a book that used a gimmick plot twist that doesn't quite work - because the whole book turns on the plot twist and is about the plot twist. As a result half the story is gone, and the reader is left sputtering. Thematically it works, but not so well storywise. It feels at the end of the day like a clever gimmick.
And Yours Until Dawn is an example of a plot twist that could have worked if the writer had spent less time trying to fool her readers. In this novel, a nurse applies to take care of a blind Earl, who was blinded while fighting in the Napoleonic War. We discover during the course of the novel that Earl went to fight to impress a somewhat shallow gal named Cecily, with whom he'd been corresponding and imagined himself desperately in love. As the nurse, who is prim and proper, although not all that great at nursing, aids him in figuring out how to deal with his blindness, the Earl slowly falls in love with his nurse. He even saves her from a burning building - which voila results in his sight returning. They make love. He proposes. She takes off before he wakes (apparently he's a deep sleeper, personally I'd have woken up). He searches for her everywhere, but she's disappeared without a trace. Turns out, that low and behold, she's actually Cecily, who felt so guilty about what happened to him that she secretly applies to be his nurse and pulls off an elaborate charade, only to leave him in the lurch when he begins to regain his sight - for fear he'll recognize her and hate her for lying to him. They reconnect, and he doesn't recognize her at all. She throws herself at him when she discovers he's shipping out again the next day. They make love before he is due to ship out, she runs off again. And he doesn't figure out who she is.
The whole time she's the nurse, in her head, she acts like she's never seen him before, has no idea what he is like or that he could be a gentleman, yet Cecily had danced with him, ate with him and corresponded with him. So how in the heck could she not know? Then in order for the reveal to come out - the writer contrives for the hero to get his sight back (lame) and
for the heroine to take off on him (somewhat cruelly, I might add). Granted he's a notorious rakehell - but we don't ever see it and the heroine doesn't really think about it. Nor is he one to her.
As a result of these hijinks, the heroine becomes rather unlikable and the hero comes off as a bit of a nitwit. It ruins the romance and makes the conflict feel contrived. The writer would have been better off either letting the reader in on the twist or only putting us in Gabriel's pov not Samatha's. OR not putting in so many bits to mislead the reader. I get why she did it - but it doesn't work. And the ending feels rushed after it is revealed.
I think it's best to avoid plot twists unless it is vital to the plot and fits the story, and you trust your reader/audience enough to know if they figure it out ahead of time, it won't matter. A good plot should be a little predictable.
The trick to a good plot twist is that the audience and/or reader is surprised, yet at the same time when they think back on the plot, it makes perfect sense. Or some of the audience, have figured it out - but it works so well and furthers the plot and conflict and characters in such a way, they can't wait for it to happen.
The thing to remember with Plot Twists is that it is okay if your reader or audience figures it out ahead of time. The only thing you, the writer, should be worried about is if it tracks, it furthers the story, furthers the characters, and makes sense. Also it should take the story in a new direction or change it in an interesting way - or at the very least explain things about the characters, etc.
Examples of good plot twists include the following:
1. Star Wars
Darth Vader: Has Obi Wan told you about your father?
Luke: Yes, you killed him.
Darth Vader: No, I didn't kill him, I am your father.
That plot twist works brilliantly. It makes sense. It explains a lot of characters. And it isn't jarring.
2. The Sixth Sense - the reveal is carefully plotted out and suddenly makes the film about something completely different than what we thought. The twist makes excellent use of the unreliable narrative device. The narrator, or point of view that we've been in all along, turns out to be unreliable because the protagonist is in denial and doesn't really know what is going on. Once the pov shifts from the protagonist, to a second protagonist, the plot twists.
3. Once Upon a Time's Peter Pan plot line - where the reveal of who the villain is twists the story on its ear, along with explaining a lot about many characters and providing a new insight into an old story. It's also trackable and makes logical sense. It works within the fabric of the story itself.
4. Memento -the story uses unreliable narrator. The Prestige uses a similar device.
5. Psycho - Norman Bates is the killer, his mother is dead.
A good plot twist may make you want to re-watch a tv show or movie. Quite a few novels have them as well. Although I'm drawing a blank on titles at the moment. Atonment by Ian McEwan comes to mind, but I dislike both the writer and the book...yet it is a good plot twist that makes use, once again, of an unreliable narrator.
But you have to be careful not to fall into gimmicks with plot twists, which is what Battle Star Galatica and LOST unfortunately did - leaving the audience cranky and dissatisfied. A lame plot twist is just as bad as the dreaded one.
Examples of the Dreaded Plot Twist :
The dreaded plot twist is when you can't track it back, or it can't be figured out as you are watching or reading the novel. The writer has left so many red-herrings or misleads a long the way, that you'd have to suspend logic to figure it out or know about it ahead of time.
A really good way to know a plot twist doesn't work is if upon re-reading or re-watching, you can't quite see it and realize it makes no logical sense. It's also when the twist feels jarring or something the characters would never do, in order for the plot twist to actually happen - the characters have to go against their true natures. If it throws you out of the story - it's a bad plot twist.
This happens when writers are working overtime to fool their audience or readers - when they don't want their audience to see it ahead of time. In short they want that OMG moment, or the jaw drop.
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike's search for a soul instead of getting his chip out on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The writers were so obsessed with fooling their fandom, particularly the spoiler whores, that they went out of their way to convince the fans that Spike wanted his chip removed. Then they were stuck and had to find something to convince fans he wanted a soul at the same time. The writers also wanted to show he would actually go get one, yet needed one too. The plot twist became incredibly complex - with a lot of contradictory desires inserted within it. As a result, many fans didn't think the character needed a soul and wanted the chip removed to prove that he could choose to be good without the chip or a soul.
The tragedy of this plot twist - is they could have pulled it off if they'd been less obsessed with fooling viewers and less involved with the online fandom. This is an example of how fan interaction with the writers of a television series can have a detrimental effect on the story. It's not the fans fault, it is however the writers who got involved with the fans in a manner that was detrimental to their craft.
What happened is - yes, the twist fooled 85-90% of the viewers. But over half of those viewers got annoyed and thrown out of the story - they felt it didn't track or was out of character. It was jarring.
2. Daytime Soap Operas and Superhero Comic Books are notorious for bad plot twists. People pop up from the dead, a lead character suddenly has a kid that no one knew about...and the character's been on the series for a looong time. A character who was good, suddenly, without warning is evil and vice versa.
3. Angel the Series: Cordelia turns out to be the big bad in S3, who has manipulated everyone. Outside of the fact that it is out of character, much like the Spike plot twist, the actor wasn't along for the ride. So as a result the actor didn't sell the plot twist.
When it is revealed, it is somewhat jarring to the viewers...and upsetting, because this is a character they rooted for and were invested in. But also it doesn't quite track.
Part of the problem is they changed the story in mid-stream or retconned it. The previous writers were going in one direction and the new group decided to go in the opposite, which resulted in a jarring plot twist right out of a daytime soap.
It's better to not attempt a plot twist than to pull off a bad one. Writers who go for the plot twist to win readers and viewers - begin to use gimmicks. And the plot twists don't work.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an example of a series that started out with great plot twists, the best plot twists were actually in the Second, Third and Fifth seasons. But by S6, the writers lost track of what they were doing and didn't carefully plot it out, also they became too invested in fooling viewers. As a result two storylines, which many viewers had been anticipating were ruined. Spike's redemption and Willow's fall into dark magic. Instead of letting the stories play out naturally for the characters, they planted misleads, such as Willow's use of magic was an addiction like crack which she could easily give up, complete with withdrawl symptoms, or that Spike's redemption was predicated on him choosing to search for a soul after doing a horrible act that would convince him he needed one. Then when the redemption arcs started in S7, the writers had written themselves into a corner and didn't know how to write themselves out of it. If they'd written the character arcs organically to the character and not cared about the plot twists...this would not have happened. They focused on the wrong thing.
Once Upon A Time is an example of a series that uses the plot twist well, it furthers the characters arcs and keeps things moving. Also they are hard to predict at times. The Good Wife also does plot twists well, in fact even better than OUAT, because it uses them sparingly. Not all the time. OUAT is beginning to fall into the trap of overuse.
Atonement by Ian McEwan is an example of a book that used a gimmick plot twist that doesn't quite work - because the whole book turns on the plot twist and is about the plot twist. As a result half the story is gone, and the reader is left sputtering. Thematically it works, but not so well storywise. It feels at the end of the day like a clever gimmick.
And Yours Until Dawn is an example of a plot twist that could have worked if the writer had spent less time trying to fool her readers. In this novel, a nurse applies to take care of a blind Earl, who was blinded while fighting in the Napoleonic War. We discover during the course of the novel that Earl went to fight to impress a somewhat shallow gal named Cecily, with whom he'd been corresponding and imagined himself desperately in love. As the nurse, who is prim and proper, although not all that great at nursing, aids him in figuring out how to deal with his blindness, the Earl slowly falls in love with his nurse. He even saves her from a burning building - which voila results in his sight returning. They make love. He proposes. She takes off before he wakes (apparently he's a deep sleeper, personally I'd have woken up). He searches for her everywhere, but she's disappeared without a trace. Turns out, that low and behold, she's actually Cecily, who felt so guilty about what happened to him that she secretly applies to be his nurse and pulls off an elaborate charade, only to leave him in the lurch when he begins to regain his sight - for fear he'll recognize her and hate her for lying to him. They reconnect, and he doesn't recognize her at all. She throws herself at him when she discovers he's shipping out again the next day. They make love before he is due to ship out, she runs off again. And he doesn't figure out who she is.
The whole time she's the nurse, in her head, she acts like she's never seen him before, has no idea what he is like or that he could be a gentleman, yet Cecily had danced with him, ate with him and corresponded with him. So how in the heck could she not know? Then in order for the reveal to come out - the writer contrives for the hero to get his sight back (lame) and
for the heroine to take off on him (somewhat cruelly, I might add). Granted he's a notorious rakehell - but we don't ever see it and the heroine doesn't really think about it. Nor is he one to her.
As a result of these hijinks, the heroine becomes rather unlikable and the hero comes off as a bit of a nitwit. It ruins the romance and makes the conflict feel contrived. The writer would have been better off either letting the reader in on the twist or only putting us in Gabriel's pov not Samatha's. OR not putting in so many bits to mislead the reader. I get why she did it - but it doesn't work. And the ending feels rushed after it is revealed.
I think it's best to avoid plot twists unless it is vital to the plot and fits the story, and you trust your reader/audience enough to know if they figure it out ahead of time, it won't matter. A good plot should be a little predictable.
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no subject
Date: 2013-12-09 08:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-09 03:00 pm (UTC)It's actually far worse to be over-zealous and keep the reader from finding out. Err on the side of - yes, I could see that coming from a mile away but it makes sense, as opposed to ...what? that makes no sense whatsoever and came out of the blue - UGH!
Very hard to pull off the type of cliffhanger in which the audience thinks, "OMG, I so did not see that coming, but I should have, because it makes so much sense."
no subject
Date: 2013-12-09 04:13 pm (UTC)Hey, you know that resolution and reunion? Didn't happen. Made it up so that they got the happy ending they never did in life.
Ouch. It makes sense. Life isn't as tidy as fiction. And... ouch. Poor Robbie.
2. Daytime Soap Operas and Superhero Comic Books are notorious for bad plot twists. People pop up from the dead, a lead character suddenly has a kid that no one knew about...and the character's been on the series for a looong time. A character who was good, suddenly, without warning is evil and vice versa.
My favorite one of these is one that I've never researched but my 'feel' when watching it was that it quite simply was NOT the original plan but serendipity slipped in and someone hit on the idea that worked.
It was the Lorna plot on Another World.
The Felicia character had been on the show for years and was in her fifties. She got a new love interest who was supposed to be a 'face from her past'. So her storyline became having to confess to the high school sweetheart that when they had broken up she had been pregnant and had given up the baby. That was their obstacle. They eventually got together and then adopted one of Soaps inevitable ingenues. A few years later the ingenue got involved in a love triangle. Mom and Dad were of course totally on their baby's side. They were quite bitchy to the 'bad girl' who was their princess's love triangle rival. And it honestly didn't look like a writer set up. It looked like somewhere along the line the writers figured out that the 'bad girl' was a good actress... and that she kinda looked like the actor and actress playing Felicia and Lucas. It was like a year into this plot when Lorna discovered that she was their long-lost child. And by then, both Felicia and Lucas hated her in the present, so when they 'figured out' that Lorna was their 'long lost child' (Because I don't think Lorna ever told) there were delicious fireworks. "Yeah, we wanted (And Lucas actually actively tried) to find our child...but not HER!"
Time can be an asset to soaps... when they take the time to actually use it.
no subject
Date: 2013-12-09 08:43 pm (UTC)That said? Yes, the plot twist works. That's not my issue with it. My issue is that the story is just about the plot twist. It hinges on the plot twist and the lesson the plot twist conveys. There's no story without it. The characters don't matter. They are just there for the plot twist. It's a gimmick. There are better books out there who have said the same thing, but with more subtlety and far more skill. Atonement is overrated.
(Don't ask me what the books are, drawing a blank at the moment. Too much stuff in my head.)
Re Soaps: they can occasionally pull it off, particularly if they make use of time and past history.
no subject
Date: 2013-12-09 09:35 pm (UTC)And I think that what made the Lorna plot work on AW was that it didn't hit the usual tropes. It wasn't the SMG/Kendal Hart plot where heretofore unknown kid arrived trying to take vengeance on the family who gave her up.
The story happened with the mother knowing that she had given up a child and that being a secret to confess to her long lost old love. And the entire story led up to their reunion and the adoption. The child who had been given up had then been a dropped story thread for several years. The conclusion of the initial story had appeared to be about their adopting a child.
Anyway, it didn't fall into the trope of a kid popping up out of the blue. It was well established that a biological kid existed somewhere.
The big sticking point in the story was that the PARENTS discovered that Lorna was the 'long lost daughter' for whom they had searched, but when they discovered that it was her... they kept their mouths shut, choosing to protect their adopted ingenue, deciding that Lorna (black leather clad, hard-nosed (successful!) (rock!) music executive) didn't fit their concept of who their daughter should have been.
The two (stellar) scenes I remember from that particular plot.
The first was after Lorna found out the truth, both that her parents had found her and that they had refused to acknowlege her in order to 'protect' their adopted daughter. There was this heartbreakingly bitter scene where Lorna arrived on some holiday (Christmas or Thanksgiving) where she gave this coded toast to her parents, letting them know that she knew... whileat the same time not revealing the truth to the adopted daughter who was also in the room. Lorna clearly felt betrayed that they thought her so beneath them that after having spent years 'searching' for the lost daughter, when they found out it was her, they had decided not to acknowlege her.
The second, even more heartbreaking scene was that for some reason or another (that I've forgotten) Lucas was murdered (I think he was shot while someone was aiming for someone else). Lorna walked in and found him bleeding to death on the office floor. She tenderly held his head on her lap while he was dying...and he was deliriously calling for the wife and adopted daughter. And when they made it to the hospital, he was taken into the ICU, but she wasn't allowed in (or allowed to consent to surgery)... because she wasn't 'family.' He died without their ever resolving their issues. (The mom eventually did grow close to Lorna).
Basically, it was one time where I felt the soap pulled it off. It didn't fall into the easy tropes (Lorna wasn't angry that she was given up for adoption. She was hurt and bitter because they had decided that she was 'bad'. Despite their having searched for their daughter, when they found her they deciding that she wasn't 'good enough' for them, and that they clearly, CLEARLY preferred the adopted daughter. They mined the characters, there, instead. And it provided some great character expansion for Lorna who became an atypical soap heroine through the plot. (And interestingly, the 'love triangle' with her, her 'sister' and the love interest ended up not at all being about the love interest who became a non-issue with both women. It eventually became a story about a mother and her two daughters. And of the two daughters coming to terms with one another. Neither of them 'got the guy' and that was fine. It wasn't about him.)
no subject
Date: 2013-12-09 11:07 pm (UTC)I vaguely remember the Lorna plotline on Another World. From the description...it is the rarity. Most stories do the standard trope. (Example: Bobbie on General Hospital has her brother hunting for the child she gave up for adoption years and years before. Meanwhile, Carly Benson comes to town and inserts herself into Bobbie's family, seduces Bobbie's husband, Tony, and pretends to be pregnant with his kid. (It's actually AJ's, although when Tony figures out it's not his - she has Jason pretend he's the father). Then Luke figures out that Carly is Bobbie's daughter. And eventually Bobbie finds out. That's the standard trope. And it's been done to death.
There's another one...a new character has popped up, been established in the show, and now hints are being placed that this new character could potentially be Sonny's kid by Lily. Lily allegedly died in a car bomb along with their unborn child over 20 years ago. This new character is Puerto Rican, her mother is dead, and is about that age.
Also the new character, Sabrina, was about to marry Robin Scorpio's husband, when everyone thought Robin was dead. But no, Robin is alive.
She's also romantically connected to mob hitman, Carlos, who is working for Sonny's enemy, and Sonny plans on torturing and killing.
So...again, the standard trope.
It's rare that they go outside of that trope. A couple of series have though...although I can't think of any except for the one you gave above.