Plot Twist Story Prompts: Celebration
Every good story needs a nice (or not so nice) turn or two to keep it interesting. This week, put on a celebration.
Plot twist story prompts aren't meant for the beginning or the end of stories. Rather, they're for forcing big and small turns in the anticipated trajectory of a story. This is to make it more interesting for the readers and writers alike.
Each week, I'll provide a new prompt to help twist your story. Find last week's prompt, Evil Mentor, here.
Plot Twist Story Prompts: Celebration
For today's prompt, put on a celebration. Big celebrations are a cause for excitement, stress, and plot twists. One of my favorite Edgar Allan Poe stories is "The Cask of Amontillado," which happens during a celebration. In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the two young lovers meet each other at a celebration.
In the two examples mentioned above, of course, things don't end happily ever after (or maybe they do for Poe's narrator), but celebrations are fun, because they bring a lot of people together with a variety of motivations and intentions. Many show up for the fun, but others may be looking for love, anonymity, or revenge.
Of course, there are varying degrees of celebrations. A small group of people could celebrate at someone's house (not a bad set up for a murder mystery). Or an entire city could be filled with parades and parties in the street; in other words, the celebration could be expansive chaos.
So put on a celebration, and see what happens next.
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Have you hit a wall on your work-in-progress? Maybe you know where you want your characters to end up, but don’t know how to get them there. Or, the story feels a little stale but you still believe in it. Adding a plot twist might be just the solution.
