6 Tips for Adding Twists to Gothic Novels

I’ll never forget sitting in the sunshine with Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and reaching That Bit (I won’t say, in case you haven’t read it, but you’ll know what I mean if you have) where the whole story turns on its head. I read the same page several times, thinking, “Wait…what?” before putting the book down for a good few minutes, while my brain reconfigured itself.

(25 Plot Twist Ideas for Writers.)

A gasp-inducing plot twist is the gothic novelist’s holy grail. Done well, a plot twist should come across as both shocking and inevitable and effortless, which is quite an ask: the writing equivalent of rubbing your stomach, patting your head, and singing Do Re Mi backwards, all at the same time.

Here are my top tips for adding twists to gothic novels.

Make the twist integral to the story. 

It’s easy to chuck a startling event into a novel, but if the “I am your father” moment happens completely out of the blue then the effect will be unsatisfying. It’s not that you need lots of heavy-handed foreshadowing, but the twist has to be there from the start, running through the story like an invisible thread. 

The fire that destroys Thornfield Hall at the end of Jane Eyre is a good example. What happens is genuinely shocking and unexpected, but it also makes perfect sense, given that the fire is started by someone we’ve come to associate with suppressed fury, illicit night-walking, and a dangerous way with candles.

Put your setting to work. 

Places are never just backdrops in gothic fiction; they are always important in their own right. I love it when a plot twist emerges from the ever-present physical setting, because it’s as if the story’s most unobtrusive character has suddenly reared its head: You knew it was there, but it still jumped you. 

If your plot twist involves—for example—a deadly incident on a stretch of sinking sands, then make sure those sands receive their due throughout the book. Describe their sounds and smells; the stories and rumors they give rise to; the ways they affect the various characters. Let the reader know those sands are out there, watching the action, waiting for their moment.

Check out Elizabeth Brooks’ The Woman in the Sable Coat here:

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Create a sense of dread. 

Make sure your reader knows that something shocking is going to happen, at some point, without giving away how, or when, or why. This isn’t about creating an all-purpose gothic atmosphere, with as many doom-laden thunderstorms and cawing crows as you feel you can get away with; it’s about building a sense of unease around the specifics of your story. 

Perhaps there’s a faintly disquieting object that appears early on—an antique wedding dress, a vase of flowers, a broken toy—which keeps bugging the reader in a low-key way, until suddenly the plot twist hits, and the object is understood afresh, in all its chilling significance.

Prioritize your characters. 

A plot twist has more impact when it happens inside a story that’s paying attention to its characters; where the playing out of their fears and longings is what matters most. If the writer is only, or primarily, motivated by a desire to shock, then—paradoxically—the reader is not going to get that satisfying punch to the gut when the plot twist comes, because who cares what happens to a cast of cardboard cutouts? 

A quietly devastating twist in a well-written novel is a million times more powerful than a glut of horror for horror’s sake.

Have fun with the “Ah ha!” moment. 

In every good whodunnit, there comes a point where all the clues have fallen into place for the detective, but the reader (unless exceptionally switched on) remains in the dark. The colonel’s wife will do something apparently innocuous, like losing a button off her cardigan, upon which Poirot will exclaim, “Mon Dieu, Hastings, how could I have been so blind?” before summoning everyone to the library for the Grand Reveal. From the reader’s point of view, this is all the more blissful for being thoroughly frustrating: You know that the answer is there, because Poirot has said so, but you also know that you won’t be able to see it, until he deigns to help you out. 

Playing about with the “Ah ha!” moment works with gothic fiction too: There might be a character who knows something crucial, but is unwilling to reveal it, or who dies before they can pass it on, or who is always one step ahead. Don’t be afraid to tease your readers!

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Make sure the pay-off is worthwhile. 

A careful build-up is essential if you want your plot twist to zing, but make sure it’s developing into something truly unforgettable. The climax doesn’t need to be loud or violent—in fact, the softly-softly approach is often more effective—but it does need to turn the reader’s mind inside out. 

The best plot twists change the entire meaning of the book, so that the reader wants to start all over again from the beginning, interpreting familiar events in light of new knowledge. Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca is a perfect example of this: We think we’re reading a lush and rather oppressive love story about a man who can’t get over the death of his perfect first wife…and then Rebecca’s body is found, and Max tells his tale, and it turns out we’ve been misreading all the clues, all along.