The Art of the Plot Twist

When you’re writing any type of crime novel, one of the most important aspects of the journey you’re taking your readers on is the plot twists. In this genre, it’s essential that your plot be unpredictable. Your reader expects to experience twists and turns while reading your story. Readers in this genre don’t want to be able to predict the ending when they first start the story.

However, while it’s important that these twists surprise the reader, they also need to be presented in a way that, once they are revealed, the twists seem so logical and plausible that the reader is actually surprised they missed them. A twist that seems to come out of left field is not going to satisfy readers of this genre.

What’s the point?

A good plot twist can create tension in order to keep readers turning the page, or it can come as a resolution that spins a narrative that the reader thought they understood on its head, leaving them thinking about what they just uncovered long after they close the book.

There are actually lots of different kinds of plot twists, and each one serves its own purpose. In crime fiction, we see a few pop up fairly regularly within the genre.

A red herring is a false clue that’s designed to distract or mislead the readers. This is pretty common and usually pops up at least once in most crime fiction stories.
An unreliable narrator is (unsurprisingly) when we find out the narrator of the story has been lying to us and we can’t trust the information they’ve been providing us. This is becoming more popular in the psychological thriller subgenre. A great example of this is The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides.
A peripeteia twist is when the story takes a sudden, surprising (usually negative) turn. This can be in the form of a revelation, a deceit, or a discovery that throws the reader off balance. Some thrillers may even have more than one twist that qualifies for this type of twist.
And an anagnorisis twist is usually an internal discovery, when the main character realizes something monumental about themselves, like in Mary Kubica’s The Other Mrs.

How Do We Pull It Off?

Writing a good plot twist can feel like an impossible task. How can we surprise the audience but make it completely believable all at the same time? It’s okay if you’re feeling overwhelmed.

The first thing to remember is that you don’t want to settle for obvious plot twists. Plot twists will take time to come up with. The best ones always do. Don’t settle for the first thing that pops into your head, because that will be obvious to the reader, too!

Now, you think you’ve got the perfect idea, but you need to set it up. Remember when I said the best plot twists need to seem plausible - logical, even? That’s because you’ve got to lay the groundwork early on in your story. You have to plant the clues. But you need those clues to be overlooked by your reader so that they only make sense once you’ve revealed the twist.

But how are you going to pull that off? Allow me to introduce you to the art of misdirection!

Have you ever been to a magic show? I don’t want to ruin any childhood fantasies here, but most magicians are just really good at employing misdirection. They get you focused on one thing while they do something else. That is basically also the art of a good plot twist.

You set up the clues for the reader, but you get them focused on something else. They’ve seen the clues, but they don’t put them all together because their attention is elsewhere. It isn’t until you unveil everything that they finally connect the dots.

This is where red herrings can come in very handy. Fake clues, leads that head in the wrong direction, and dead ends are great ways to get readers wrapped up in focusing on the wrong thing. Another great technique is to distract readers with action. Get a scene cranked up with action so the reader is really focused on what’s going on, and then subtly drop in a clue.

There are lots of ways to work a twist into a story, but remember your reader ultimately wants to feel like the twist makes sense. Ending your story with, “it was all a dream!” or “and then he woke up!” is just a cop out and will leave your reader frustrated and probably annoyed that they wasted their time reading your novel.

Always take the time to plan through a plot twist that’s worthy of your story and satisfies your readers.