Plot Twist Story Prompts: Running Empty

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, Breaking News, here.

For today's prompt, have a needed resource run low or empty. You get to choose the resource or resources. Maybe the characters run out of food, water, gas, medicine, and/or cellular or internet service. It's possible there's a range of resources needed, but even one might be enough to kick up the stakes of your story.

(Four Types of Conflict.)

One example: Car runs out of gas. Character(s) has to find more gas and/or a different mode of travel. Maybe they hitchhike, walk up to a nearby house, or steal another vehicle. A second example: Character(s) runs out of medicine for themselves or another character. So they must find medicine before complications.

In both of these examples, it's possible that the stakes could be life and death. But it's possible in both scenarios that these stories lead to humorous and/or romantic situations. However, running empty is what raises the stakes for the character(s) and gets them interacting with their world and other characters.

So have a needed resource run out and see where it takes your characters and story.

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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.