Plot Twist Story Prompts: Between Worlds
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, Unexpected Reaction, here.
Plot Twist Story Prompts: Between Worlds
For today’s prompt, have a character get caught between worlds. These worlds could be literal planets, but it could also be different cliques or associations. For instance, a character may be caught between having arty friends who don’t like sports and athletic friends who only like sports.
(Character Conflicts That Mirror a Larger Societal Conflict.)
This plot twist can create a couple layers of conflict. First, there may be an actual external conflict between the two different worlds. Second, there is likely an internal conflict within the character who is trying to negotiate both worlds and who may find good in both worlds (even as both worlds have friction).
Each world will probably try to convince your character that they’re the better one and that the other world is substandard (or even outright bad). To take a popular John Hughes trope: The rich kids may look down on the poorer kids, who themselves look down on the rich kids. Of course, there are many more worlds that exist within any one world.
So have a character get caught between worlds, and see what happens next.
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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.