Plot Twist Story Prompts: Fall Ill
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, Release the Monster, here.
Plot Twist Story Prompts: Fall Ill
For today's prompt, have one (or more) of your characters get sick. Let's face it: We're not all healthy all the time. Sometimes we come down with a mild cold or something much more dramatic. I think of the sickness and death in Wuthering Heights, but here's a list of other debilitating illnesses in literature.
Of course, your story will change dramatically if a major character falls ill and dies. But maybe they survive a major complication and have to overcome a chronic condition. Or perhaps, a character has to care for a person who has fallen ill or survived an illness. These would all lead to major twists in the plot.
However, your plot twists could be more subtle. A character tries to hide from a pursuer but has this pesky cough that threatens to reveal him or her. Or a character looks forward to a date that is suddenly canceled, because his or her date is sick (or are they?). Sometimes just getting the chills from a mild fever can up the stakes in a particular scene.
So let your characters get sick and figure out what that means for your story moving forward.
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