Plot Twist Story Prompts: Rumor Mill

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, Chekhov's Gun, here.

For today's prompt, have a rumor drive a wedge between characters. The rumor could be true, but it could also be false. That it's not a cut-in-stone fact is precisely why it is referred to as a rumor.

(10 Things to Consider When Writing Obsession in Fiction.)

One popular example of this, of course, is the character Othello (from the Shakespearean play of the same name) who is misled by his ensign Iago about the fidelity of his wife Desdemona. Iago creates and stokes a rumor campaign that leads to one of the more tragic stories ever told.

Rumors are not always created by sinister assistants though. Sometimes they are formed from misinterpreted data (like only hearing part of a conversation or seeing something from a particular angle or after an earlier action). But once a rumor gets out and about, it can often lead to a lot of pain and misunderstanding and hurt feelings.

So have a rumor drive a wedge between characters, 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.