Making People Guess

Hello guys and gals,

How many of you love stories with a plot twist galore?

Personally I love it because It’s not fun reading a story if you already know what will happen. That twist of fate makes the story so much more interesting.

But, sometimes a classic tale is just as good. For example, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The story has a common moral. Be selfless and you will be rewarded, and wealth doesn’t guarantee happiness. Both lessons are true. In the story Charlie is the underdog. He’s not like the other kids that care about instant gratification. He thinks of others first and has a happy ending because of this.

I love it. Since I work in a school sometimes I wish the student I work with will realize this. But that’s another topic for another day.

Plot twist, you kind of expect Charlie to get his happy ending. But if you look at other 

stories, for example, the Hunger Games series. There is a major plot twist!!! A devastating

 plot twist. At the end of the story you expect Katniss to get her happily ever after but it 

comes at the price  of the death of Primrose. 

This loss caused Katniss to lose her mind. What you expect to happen doesn’t happen. I love and hate it. But this plot twist is a great example of causing us the readers to pull a Luke.

The constant suspense is amazing. It’s like riding a never ending drop to your death roller coaster!

So, how do we build suspense? 

• draw everything out

• at key moments, don’t write what everybody expects 

• think outside the box but, not too far out that’s a dangerous place

• kill off a poor unsuspecting character that everybody loves

• create an amazing cliffhanger as your ending

• when your life shattering moment happens in your story show the reader,  facts about the situation before you continue to write the life shattering moment

 One more thing, don’t overdo it because that can happen. I may or may not be guilty of overdoing it in the suspense department. And if I am guilty of this, it might have created a story that dragged on and on. I’m not admitting to anything but that’s exactly what will happen if you stall too much. 

I might have missed something or I should say multiple things. If you have anything to add let me know in the comments and I’ll add them.😁 Have a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious rest of your day or night. 😉