: Re: Is an easily guessed plot twist a good plot twist? In my post-apocalyptic novel, there are two "twists", but they're mostly tied up in each other. The first is that humans have developed

To add something that isn't covered much in the existing (very good) answers: plot twists aren't always surprises for the reader, sometimes they are for the character. It can be argued that this doesn't qualify as a twist in a strict sense of the word, but it's a reveal certainly and it's often the exact same reveal as a plot twist except it's been given away to the reader in advance. This serves a different purpose than the twist that takes the reader by surprise, but it can still be a legitimate tool in writing.

An easy example from "lower" literature would be the trope of a girl disguising as a boy (tvtropes warning) for some reason or another. It is popular in east Asian light/web novels and the reader will often know from the very first description of the character that they're in fact a girl in disguise. In many cases this isn't sloppy writing but very deliberate: this way the author can develop romantic and/or sexual tension between the girl and male lead without the reader being put off for homophobic reasons. The dramatic utility here comes from waiting for the male lead to find out, anticipating their reaction, near misses etc. and humour can be developed by lamp-shading, ironic comments about the girl character's "femininity" and so on.

There will still be a big reveal in the end and it will be a surprise for the characters, but the reader's experience is predicated on different emotions: rather than surprise, shock and epiphany it is about tension created by the difference in knowledge between reader and character and anticipation of the characters' reactions.

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: Re: Is an easily guessed plot twist a good plot twist? In my post-apocalyptic novel, there are two "twists", but they're mostly tied up in each other. The first is that humans have developed

More posts by @Hamaas631

: Developing a dialogue that unexpectedly leads to strong feelings between two strangers A short story I'm writing involves a stage in which the male protagonist talks to a stranger with the intent

: How should one refer to knights (& dames) in academic writing? In ordinary English usage, one would refer to a knight called 'Forename Surname' as Sir Forename, not Surname, e.g. Sir Forename

: Remember the proverb "Everyone is the hero in his own story." They might be evil from your point of view, but you need to make sure that their actions are guided by reason, even if it

: How can I add dynamic images to page headers based on headlines? Version: Microsoft Word 2016 Here you can see, that my headline 9 (and all other headlines, too) have an image as part of

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