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Topic : Re: Are plot twists always necessary for a good story? In the story I'm writing, the protagonist writes a representational story about himself and about the fulfillment of his wish impossible in - selfpublishingguru.com

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I'd say no. You don't need plot twists.

But you might get them anyway. Let me explain.

Your characters should show some kind of change. At least your protagonist. Or, if he does not change, he should change his world somehow.

And those characters that change should have goals.

So, should your antagonist, although it's usually not a good idea to have an antagonist that changes -- it may reduce the protagonists win/loss if the antagonist suddenly comes over to his side.

The characters' goals should be hard to reach because they are being thwarted by the antagonist.

This is often because the antagonist has the same goal as the protagonist: find the treasure, win the competition, etc.

You can build suspense by making the reader ask about your protagonist: how on earth is he going to make it out of this?

The protagonist's goal needs to be hard to reach, but not impossible. And it needs to be valuable to the protagonist, and the reader needs to understand why.

As a writer, you need to have an evil streak when it comes to your characters and how hard you make it for them to reach their goals.

Readers love to fear for their characters lives or success.

And, once you've piled on with hard obstacles and powerful foes the fact that the character does manage to reach his goal might just come as a huge twist in the end anyway.

Although, beware of "Deus ex Machina"-effects. The problems and obstacles should be hard to overcome, but not so impossible you need to bring in "the gods" to save your protagonist.

As I understand it your story has a narrator. Even he has to be just as good a storyteller as you are, and he cannot give away the end too soon, even if he knows it.

You may also be able to pull a "Braveheart" on the reader, not giving away who the narrator is until the very end...

The important part isn't, however, if you have twists or not. The important part is that you have engaged readers, and you get that by making them feel -- fear, suspense, joy, dread, angst...

Goals and obstacles are one great way to take a seemingly straight-from-A-to-B-story and make it into a nail biter.


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