Plot Twist Story Prompts: No Longer There

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, Green World, here.

For today's prompt, have something that was there suddenly not be there. An example would be a story in which a tornado is approaching a house, so the family goes down into the cellar and hear all this rattling and shaking above as the storm passes. When they emerge back into the house, there's only one problem: It's not there anymore.

(5 Ways to Surprise Your Reader Without It Feeling Like a Trick.)

But there are other examples of something going missing. In The Big Lebowski, it's a car that goes missing (after a wife goes missing). In Star Wars: A New Hope, an entire planet that's supposed to be there suddenly isn't anymore. So whether your something is small or gigantic, it should be something your characters expect to be there...only, it isn't.

And then what? What do your characters do when the thing they expect to find is not there? Do they get angry? Lose hope? Sit in shock? The reactions of your characters may drive the future momentum of the story, or perhaps whatever removed the something is still around to try and take more.

So have something that was there suddenly not be there, 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.

Click to continue.